


One more Time

by QueenPotatos



Category: Doctor Who, Free!
Genre: Car Accident, Doctor Who x Free! crossover, M/M, RH week 2016, Read summary for more informations, This is kinda cliché, and the notes, prompts time traveling and cross over, time traveling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-07
Updated: 2016-08-15
Packaged: 2018-08-07 07:10:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 25,995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7705324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenPotatos/pseuds/QueenPotatos
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everything always happens so fast in his life.</p><p>Rin barely has time to realize he's got in his hands the power to go back into time by the form of an old watch his grandfather gave him that Haru gets hit by a car and loses his live.</p><p>Desperate, Rin uses and misuses of this new unhoped objet to save Haru, but playing with Time isn't free from consequences, and no one knows it like the Doctor.</p><p>There's a crack in a wall, in the small town of Iwami, and the TARDIS chose to land there the day of Haru's death.</p><p>Are all of these events a simple coincidence?</p><p>The Doctor thinks not, of course.</p><p>And he's not the type to leave when there's a life to be saved, and when the one asking for help is, on top of that, ginger!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. I

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this story for Day 1 and 2 : Time Travelling and Cross Over theme. It's supposed to be a one shot but it's getting very long and I did not finished writing it yet.  
> It's a Doctor Who Cross Over. For some who are not familair with this awesome serie it's about a Time Lord called the Doctor, an alien, who travels into time and space with his spaceship (the TARDIS!) and save people, and where Aliens always attack London first when they want to invade Earth. (Ask the BBC about it).
> 
> The beginning is a little bit sad - totally sad - but it has to be done...
> 
> The Doctor and Amy Pond will arrive with chapter 2 so I'll talk about them with more details tomorrow
> 
> (Also, there is a lot of vocabulary I lacked for this, I search on the internet but some phrases might look weird since it's not beta yet. I'll fix it later)

 

 

Before Reading a word about Time Lines :

\- Free! universe : the story is set just before Rin goes back to Australia at the end of season 2

\- Doctor Who Universe : for the major parts the story is set in between season 5 ep 3 and 4, just before the double episode with the whipping angels and River Song and after the Victory of the Dalek. the last part would be after the Angels take Manhattan. (s7 ep5).

I tried to make it possible for non whovians to read it, feel free to ask if there are things really too complicated for you all add details.

 

# One More Time

 

 

Rin woke up as soon as the alarm rang. '6 : 00 AM' in red letters shone in the darkness of his childhood room on the ceiling. He had to come back early to Samezuka's dorms, and this for the two remaining weeks until graduation and the ceremony. It had been his mother's birthday this weekend so he celebrated with his two favourite girls; but the night had been long and he had missed the last train, again, not that her mother minded, nor Gou, for what it's worth – it even seemed a little bit planned, but he was no man to complain against two Matsuoka women, he knew better than that. 

He walked to the kitchen, he never thought he wouldn't be alone. 

"Hello sweetie," his mother said softly not to wake up Gou, "I made breakfast." 

Rin groaned for lack of speech – he wasn't particularly a sleepy head like Gou but waking up at 6 AM had never been a pleasure cruise – and sat in front of the table. Awaiting a plate with his breakfast, his eyes squinted when he noticed a package put on the table instead. 

"Oh, it's from your grand-father," his mother told him. "He sent it with the gift and I totally forgot until last night, but you were already sleeping." 

"What is it?" Rin managed. 

"How do you want me to know? It's still wrapped. Eat first, you'll open it when you have free time." 

Rin put the package in his bag and forgot about it for almost the entire day. Truth was, there was only one thing on his mind, and it had been there for a entire week. 

 _'Would you meet me at 5 pm next Monday?'_  

It was a text from Haru after their last joined practice – even if the season was over it never prevented the two team to hold regular training sessions. They were, after all, friends. 

All of them. 

Even Rin and Haru. At least that was what Rin repeated again and again, trying to drown with his thoughts hidden feelings he had had for Haru since a couple of short – very short, he insisted – years. 

With his eminent departure for Australia though things were moving. Actually since Australia and this night spent in the same bed, Rin and Haru's relationship was moving. Into where? None of them knew, or wanted to. But Rin doubted they were just friends anymore; he couldn't put a word on what laid behind Haru's insistent looks or the way he touched his wrist when they were alone. His delicate fingers brushing on his skin...he needed to stop thinking about it. 

This day Haru asked to meet him at 5 PM and maybe something would happen, but it could mean literally anything. 

Literally. 

He needed to calm down before getting ready, or else he'd have to take another shower and changed for the fifth time of the day. 

His grandfather's package was still in his bag; what a chance, he had found something to occupy his mind for the remaining hour. 

Inside the package was a little white box, and inside it, what Rin would call a very old pocket watch. 

It was rusted and the time was wrong but overall it looked nice. It was round and as big as the palm of his hands, and there was a long chain on its top linked on a kind of button. The hours were in roman, but in the middle he could see in Arabic numbers today's date. There was two little spanner on each side of the watch. 

Rin looked for a note or for something else coming from his grandfather – to be honest he wasn't very close to this branch of his family, which was a shame considering all the tragedies they have gone through, but his mother had always been very discreet about her own parents, to the point where Rin and Gou had doubted they were still alive. They were no note but words at the bottom of the box, writing with a dazzling bleu royal blue. 

_'What is fixed can't be unfixed without dammage. xx'_

Rin frowned, did it make any sense? 

The rest of the package was immaculate from any trace, there was not even a stamp, but then Rin remembered it was sent with his mother's present and she must have kept the biggest package at home. 

"First, set the hour before I am late for my meeting with Haru," Rin said to himself. 

He turned the little spanner adjuster; the hands travelled in time and when they finally showed four o'clock, Rin wondered where he could put new batteries. There was no groove on the watch's frame, except for the number '4' craved on the back. Rin gazed at the inscription at the bottom of the box, then knocked four times on the watch but nothing happened. 

But there was that little button on the top of the watch, begging to be pushed so... 

Rin pushed it. 

And everything became painful, and white. 

 

When Rin opened his eyes again he was in his childhood bed; the alarm rang before he got time to wonder if it had all been a dream or not, and when he saw it was already 6 AM, he jumped out of his bed and headed to the kitchen. 

He was surprised to see his mother preparing breakfast. "Hello sweetie," she greeted him, "You slept alright?" 

"I had a very strange dream," he started, "I dreamed that-" 

"First eat your breakfast. You still look sleepy." She put some bacon and eggs on a plate. "By the way there's something for you on the table." 

When Rin slowly turned his head – he was dreading this moment – his grandfather's package was there, unwrapped, waiting for him. He barely heard his mother saying it came with her gift and having forgotten about it until yesterday night – 'but you were already sleeping!' - and there it was, in front of him. 

He couldn't wait until he reached Samezuka, Rin had to be sure of what was inside. 

It was the watch. 

Its hands were blocked on four o'clock. 

 

The day took place dreadfully just as in Rin's dream. Every small details happening in the exact same way – Sousuke's pen fell on the floor, Nitori wore a green T-shirt way too large, the cat rubbed his legs when he gave him food – which left Rin pensive. What had really happened? Was it all a dream, or did he...did he go back into time? 

The only clue he had was the watch itself. In his dream the watch showed ten to three when, this morning, Rin read four o'clock, the time he had set during his dream. Either the watch setting had always been four o'clock and it had been a dream, either something happened when he had pushed on the button, and the watch brought him back in the past. 

Or he was still dreaming, but that was even more far-fetched. 

This whole thing made him forget about his meeting with Haru. _'Still meeting me at 5?'_ Rin read on his phone. 

 _'You bet!'_ He replied. He immediately regretted his burst of enthusiasm, fearing that Haru could see what laid behind. He couldn't let him see, not yet, how much he meant to him. Rin was leaving in a couple of weeks after all, it was too late to start anything. 

 

Lost in his thoughts Rin arrived way earlier than expected to the meeting place – a park near the Ocean and just next to Haru's favourite ice cream shop. Haru was already there, and seemed as surprised as Rin was to see the other there. 

"Hello," Haru's eyes were stuck on the ground. 

"Hi!" Rin overacted his enthusiasm to hide his uneasiness and to try to give some to Haru, in vain. It only made the situation more awkward than it already was. 

"Wannagogetanicecream?" Haru mumbled way too quickly for Rin to catch anything. 

"What?" 

"I said, would you like an ice cream." Haru repeated louder. He looked tired and pissed, Rin didn't know how to react to Haru's sudden bad mood – he had looked quite normal before Rin arrived, maybe just anxious just like him. 

As they walked to the shop Rin realized that if Haru was anticipating the meeting just as he was, it could meant that they had the same expectations, meaning this was, perhaps, a date. 

Their first real unofficial date. 

His heartbeat fastened in his chest. 

Red coloured his cheeks. 

Rin gulped and took a deep breathe, and saw Haru doing the same; yet even knowing that equal thoughts ran through both of their mind Rin couldn't meet Haru's gaze. He wasn't ready for that. Things were good for the time being. He just wanted to spend time with Haru before he left for Australia, not making anything official – what would they do, separated by a fucking ocean and a ten hour flight? Skyping? Did Haru even have a computer and internet access where he would be staying in Tokyo? 

This was moving too fast. 

"Bitter Chocolate," He demanded when his turn came. "Haru?" 

"Hum?" 

"What do you want?" 

Rin decided that initiating the action before Haru had the chance to treat for his ice scream was his best option. That way, he was in control of the situation, of his emotions – or he would try to. 

"There's no saba flavour you know." 

"I know that, it's ice cream." Haru bit back. He was straight as a rod, all of his muscle were tensed – even on his face. Rin doubted he could even sit in this condition. 

"You're not paying for me." Haru added. 

His tone was somehow irritated – or wounded, Rin couldn't tell. He wondered then why Haru had wanted to meet up in first place if it was to be so cold. The whole thing was a disaster. 'You bet!' He had replied earlier. What a shame. He really wanted to see Haru but not like that. Not all tensed and withdraw, and on the verve of saying something he was not ready to hear. 

"I wasn't planning to," Rin lied, "Why would I?" 

"Yeah," Haru said absentmindedly. 

"It's not like you’re my date," 

"Yeah," Haru repeated. 

"Or me yours," 

"Yeah." 

With this, their discussion hit the standstill, and Rin's enthusiasm evaporated into thin air. This was probably the worst thing he could have said. Thinking about his own wish only, he totally forgot about Haru's, and worse than seeing Haru pissed now Rin saw his friend's indifference. Haru had withdraw into his shell completely, surely because Rin's words had hurt him more than he could bare. 

It was far from what he had expected their afternoon would be. 

Rin felt guilty, but he was bad at that. Moreover it was his selfishness that had brought them there and nothing else, if he had to do it again he'd probably used other words but his attitude would have been the same. 

"Do you want some?" 

Rin handed Haru his cone when they were outside – both had paid their due. Haru bent and took some bitter chocolate into his mouth, and winced. "It's bitter." 

"Well I ordered bitter chocolate remember?" 

"I didn't catch it." Haru confessed, and handed Rin his own cone. 

"Argh, too much sugar." 

"It's cherry," Haru said as they started walking again. 

"I know, I ordered it for you." 

"Then why did you taste if you knew you wouldn't like it?" 

Haru halt before Rin could anticipated anything. They bumped into each other, and Rin's ice cream fell on his white T-shirt. 

"Shit!" Rin muttered. 

"Sorry," 

Rin raised his eyes to Heavens. Everything looked so peaceful from there. He wanted the turmoil of his heart to stop. 

"I have to change." 

"Can it wait-" 

"No," Rin cut him, "I have to wash it now otherwise I can chuck it out." 

Haru bent his eyes to the ground. 

"Tomorrow," Rin burst. "Are you free tomorrow?" 

Haru looked surprised, but merely shrugged. "I guess." 

"Perfect, it's perfect. I'm, really Haru I'm sorry. I had a lot on my mind today-" 

"Me too." Haru added. 

"Is there something you want to talk about?" 

Haru looked at his unfinished ice cream rather than at Rin's eyes, it finally didn't look that tasty. "It can wait tomorrow." 

"You sure?" 

Haru nodded. "Go wash your T-shirt before you blame me for loosing it." 

Eventually Haru's bad humour cracked a smile out of Rin. "Alright, I'll invite you." 

"But I-" 

"No, don't say anything. It's non negotiable, Nanase." 

 

Feeling the conclusion of their meeting could have been far worse than that, it's with a contained joy that Rin came back to the dorms. Sousuke was studying when he opened the door. "How was your hot date with Nanase?" He asked. 

"Horrible," Rin replied. 

Sousuke took his headphone off. "Really? It doesn't seem to hurt you as much as I thought." 

"Even you think some times?" 

"Drop it, Rin. You're madly in love with him." 

"I'm not _madly_ in love with him come on," Rin complained, "He's just a small crush I had in middle school." 

"Which grew and grew until it became a magnificent Sakura tree, blooming its petals everywhere you go. Even your homestay parents know you love him. Your love crosses the ocean." 

Rin pretended he hadn't heard anything and jumped on his bed. 

Sousuke turned around to face him. "Seriously?" 

"What?" 

"You're not gonna tell me what happened?" 

Rin sighed, "Nothing happened." 

"Is that why you said it was horrible?" 

"No, I mean, 'nothing' did not happen it was just..." Rin shew on his lips, there wasn't a word for what had happened that he could find. "Let's say we were both so tense that we got paralysed, and it got fucking weird." 

"So you ran away." Sousuke concluded. 

"I didn't run away I had to wash my-oh shit my shirt." 

Rin disappeared into the bathroom; when he came back, half naked, Sousuke was at the door, his running shoes ready to meet asphalt. 

"I guess we'll talk about this when I come back but Rin, " he told him, "Rin be careful with what you do with your feelings. I know you're about to leave for Australia but it won't be forever. And if you think Haruka doesn't love you enough for a long distance relationship then you're wrong." 

Rin could only stood, speechless. 

"He loves you, more than you think so give him a chance. Give you both a chance, before it's too late. That's your best shot, you won't have a second chance." 

 

Sousuke was right, he had been stupid. 

Somehow deep inside his heart Rin already knew all that. He had loved Haru for so long that it became part of himself, and a few thousand of kilometres would never changed that reality. I loved him, and would love him until his last breath. 

But loving Haru felt like walking up to the edge of a cliff, and accepting his love in return felt like throwing himself into the void, never knowing when the fall would ended. 

Yet, he didn't have to be alone. 

Haru, holding his hands, would fall with him. 

And if it was with Haru he'd go anywhere. 

"I won't get a second chance, will I?" Rin spoke to himself. 

He looked for the watch, he founded it next to his phone. He ignored the miscalled on his screen – there were 17, from Makoto, Gou, Nagisa and Rei, even one from his mother – and put all of his attention to think about the mechanism of the time travelling watch.  

(After all if he was to go back into time those phone calls wouldn't matter anymore.) 

"If it's a dream then I'll wake up again and none of his would have happened. If I go back into time, nothing would have happened as well. I have nothing to lose." 

Rin pushed the top button but this time, his vision did not become white and his feet remained on his bed. Nothing happened. 

"Shit, don't let me down super watch." 

What had happened before he pushed the button and woke up in his bed this morning? 

"I set the hour!" Rin exclaimed. 

That was so obvious he didn't think about it! Getting back into time by putting the clocks back...that was just brilliant. Whoever invented this time machine was a genius. 

Last time he went back of one hour and he woke up the same day. What would two hours back be then? Two days back into time? 

Rin pushed on the button, and everything became white. 

 

 

Rin woke up in his childhood bedroom, but this time there was light coming from the windows, enlightening the room. It was past 10 AM, on Sunday morning. Rin checked the date just to be sure : 18th of March. 

"Elementary," he murmured. 

Two hours meant two days backward, that was just as simple as that. 

 

"Hello sweetie," his mother said when he came down to the kitchen at 6 AM the following day. "There's something for you on the table, it's from grandpa- eat first!" 

 

Sousuke's pen fell on the floor. The cat brushed past his legs. 

 

 _'Still meeting me at 5?'_  

 _'You bet!'_  

 

No bitter chocolate this time, Rin decided as he put on his third shirt – he couldn't go with the white one! - he'd rather have something sweeter to share with Haru. And he wouldn't go there early. This was probably part of why Haru had been so confused, he didn't have time to collect his thoughts. After having two whole more days to think about it, Rin's stress had vanished entirely, and it's with a clear mind that he walked, at ten past five, out of the dorm. He was awfully late but since Haru hadn't sent him any text, it might not be a real problem. He was surely still lost in his thoughts. 

Rin took the train and through the glass he saw a gathering of people on the road. 

He got out, the siren's noise deafened his ears, and curious he sneaked closer. Apparently there had been a bad accident very recently since the ambulance had just arrived. The car driver was in tears, knelt in front of a man lying on the ground. 

"I didn't see him," the car driver sobbed, "He didn't see me either, he was so focused on his phone," 

"Please let the doctor get to the patient." 

A man in a white coat holding a big case and an ambu bag patted on Rin's shoulder, who let him pass. In his walkthrough the nurse pushed other bystanders on the side, and for one moment Rin stole a glance on the horrible scene. 

There were so much blood. 

There was a cone with a red colour flavour ice scream on the floor. 

There was also Haru's phone, broken, on the other side of the road. 

Rin didn't know when the cops came, he vaguely remembered that he was pushed away by strong hands and they delimited the security perimeter with yellow bands. The victims had dark short hair and when he got into the stretcher, the doctor had put a tube in his throat and a foam neck brace. 

Under the shock Rin remained immobile for a couple of minutes, minutes that turned into an hour. It took the gentleness of an old lady, who passed by him for the fourth time this day, to wake him up from his haze. She gave him a tissue and put a hand on his arm, giving him a sad smile. 

In front of him, circulation was still stopped. The policemen hadn't remove the red ice scream from the road, nor the blood puddle. His phone vibrated in his pocket. It was Gou. 

"Rin..." She sniffed, but Rin felt nothing. "Rin, you need to come at the hospital as soon as possible. It's Haru..." 

"I know," he replied. 

She seemed surprised, but he couldn't tell her. 

That it was his fault. 

 

His feet walked on their own to the hospital. Haru was in the O.R when Gou called him. She was waiting in a corridor next to the family's room. Her eyes were swollen by the tears. 

"Rin," she called him when he emerged from the ER entrance. 

Rin had no idea of how he got there, how he joined his sister, how he could still be standing on his feet. He couldn't hear anything apart from the siren, couldn't see anything except Haru's disappointed eyes from their last meeting. He didn't want to see anything else but his smile. He was not ready to hear anything but Haru's voice. 

"Rin," Gou repeated to catch his attention. "Rin...he didn't make it." 

She took her brother's waist into her frail arms and burst into tears. Makoto and his parents' joined a few moment after.  They were all crying but Rin couldn't. His whole body was paralyzed, even his lachrymal glands didn't seem to work properly. 

A nurse from the O.R came to them, telling them that he was ready. Ready for what, Rin wondered, and then he understood. 

He was ready for the last goodbye. 

Gou grabbed his hand as everyone walked to where Haru was laying. 

But he couldn't go there. 

He was not ready. 

"Rin..." Gou said when she felt resistance, "Rin we have to go." 

"No." 

"Rin!" 

"I can't." 

"Rin," Makoto said, "You...all of the people...for him please, you have to be here. Don't leave him go alone." 

"I told you I can't." 

It came out of his mouth like a whisper when Rin had wanted to scream. He freed his hand from Gou's grip, and ran. 

"Rin!" They called him. He couldn't hear them. Only the sirens, only Haru's laugh, " _Hello Sweetie"_ from his mother, " _He loves you_ " from Sousuke, _'He didn't make it'-_  

Gou ran after him, but Makoto stopped her, "Give him time," Makoto told her. "They were supposed to meet when the car hit Haru. He must feel guilty..." 

"He could have been killed as well." Gou murmured, her hands covering her chest. 

"Haru's mother just called us, they are on their way. They won't be there until tomorrow morning though." Makoto's mother went and took Gou in her arms. "How are we going to announce this tragedy to the twins?" 

 

Rin ran, as far as his lung could take him. 

He ran out of the hospital and when he left his eyes, they fell on the Sakura tree of their primary school. 

He had started to bloom, there were a dozen of sakura petals ready to embellish the world in the weeks to come. A world without Haru. 

He couldn't make it. 

That was out of the question. 

One hour, one day. 

Rin pushed the button, without a second thought. 

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is supposed to be a one shot so the transition might be rough.  
> We just left Rin with his watch after he ran from the hospital.

 

Rin woke up in his childhood bedroom along with his alarm. 6.00 AM was blinking on the ceiling and despite the irritating noise Rin couldn't wake up. He had gone back into time but his mind was still in the hospital, in the future. 

Suddenly he remembered how to breathe again and his ling moved, his arms moved and he burst into tears. He cried as if he would never be able to stop, and before he realized it he was late for school. 

"Sweetie," his mother went to his bed with his breakfast on a plate, "What's happening?" 

She knelt beside his bed, "I had a very bad nightmare," he lied. He knew how true it was, how true it was going to be. He had to stop it no matter what.  

He needed a strategy. He needed time. 

"I'm not feeling very well," Rin told his mother. "I think I'll call in sick." 

"You look heartbroken...did something happen yesterday night? Did you have a fight with Haruka?" 

Rin gulped, and her mother smiled when she thought she understood her son's turmoil. If only she knew – no, she'd better not know anything, he should be the only one ever aware of how closed Haru had been to death. 

Because he would save him, no matter what. 

 

Rin had tons of wonderful and brilliant ideas to stop Haru front being hit by a car. 

First, he cancelled the rendez-vous. 

'I'm sick,' he wrote first, but that wasn't convincing enough. He needed to find an excuse that would literally repulse Haru, something he couldn't negotiate with. Here were his favourite tries. 

 _'A stray cat scratched my face when I fed him yesterday. I lost an eye and my nose is in pretty bad shape. I'm ready to cosplay_ _Albator_ _now. Anyway, can't get out with that face, sorry!'_  

 _'Gou and my mother had been scratching for three days. They went to the doctor this morning: it's scabies. My wrist is super itchy since I've learned the news...I don't want to contaminate you so I'll pass this time. Gou is considering burning all her stuff to get rid of this shit – this is fucking serious.'_  

 _'Yesterday it was my mother's birthday and she invited old friends she hadn't seen in a while. One came from Africa and had fever. Now he's in the hospital and I have fever too. The doctor said it could be Ebola. I'm confined to my bedroom for at least a week so I won't be able to come.'_  

 _'My mother cooked very suspicious eggs yesterday. We're having the worst case of familial explosive diarrheal of the Matsuoka family. I can't leave my house for more than 20 minutes. Sorry!'_  

Rin swallowed his pride _'this is for_ _Haru_ _, this is for_ _Haru_ _,'_ he thought, and sent the last message. His bravour was rewarded by a instant reply, 'Get well soon.' Haru's text said, and Rin exploded. 

"Yatta!!!" 

Death 1 – 1 Rin Matsuoka. 

And then came Makoto's message. 

 _'Get well soon! It's a shame you're sick – we're going to eat ice cream with_ _Nagisa_ _and Rei this afternoon. If you're better you can drop by, I'm sure_ _Haru_ _would be very happy. Meeting at 5 PM!'_  

Makoto didn't know but he had drained all the happiness out of Rin's body. On top of putting Haru's life on the line, Rin now had to assume his bowel problems in front of everyone – there's no doubt Haru told the whole group about this since he had little consideration of Rin's pride. 

It seemed Haru was determined to go there with or without him, so he might as well be there and physically stop him from jumping under the car's wheels – he would push him and take the bumper himself if it could save him. 

A shiver ran down his spine. 

 

The four Iwatobi's were already there when he entered the shop. It was just before five o'clock. 

Nagisa was a living nightmare – he wanted to taste everything and the waitress looked exhausted – and Rei was examining every single flavour to decide which one he should order. Makoto and Haru greeted him as soon as they saw him coming. 

"You're feeling better?" Makoto asked. Haru was avoiding his gaze already. He must have thought that Rin cancelled their meeting just because he didn't want to be alone with him. 

"I took some pills," Rin lied, trying to catch Haru's attention, "My stomach doesn't hurt anymore so-" 

"You shouldn't take a ice cream in your condition," Haru told him, "It's a bad idea." 

Rin hadn't thought about it – bye bye chocolate ice cream. "Well it's not big deal-" 

"Why did you come anyway?" 

"I...I wanted to?" Rin stammered.  

But the answer didn't please Haru it seemed, because he turned his back to him and went to the checkout to pay for everyone. Rin was doing a terrible job at hiding his hurt and Makoto put an comforting hand on his shoulder. He had his motherly-gentle eyes no one could resist. 

"He'll calm down eventually," he told him, "To be honest Haru's been on edge last week. He was looking forward to go there with you...he was really insistent, almost obsessed." 

Rin's eyes widened, he had no idea. 

"It was really important for him to come here with you," 

Makoto didn't tell him why, but there was something in the tone of his voice that lead Rin to believe he knew, everything. That even if Haru hadn't tell him anything he had guessed his motive, and that by sharing this information with Rin, he acknowledged and gave them his blessing. 

"That's probably why he looks so annoyed right now, that you've been able to come after all now that we are all here. I guess it will work next time." 

He gave him a warm smile but Rin didn't want to laugh at all because there was this possibility, that there could be no next time. 

"Makoto!" Nagisa called him out when they got out of the shop, "Where's Haru-chan?" 

Rin felt like vomiting. He had turned his gaze for a second and Haru had taken that opportunity to disappear. The image of his blood on the road came to his mind. He checked the time: 5:01 PM. 

He hold his stomach, and got out of the shop. 

"You shouldn't have come," came Haru's voice, "You're still sick." 

When he saw Haru's grumpy face Rin almost hugged him – but then Haru's ice cream would end up on his shirt again. He had gone with a cherry flavour again, Rin noticed. 

"How long have you liked cherries?" He asked, a little bit out of the blue – the idea kept him from thinking straight. 

Haru looked at his ice cream as if it was an alien. He shrugged. "I don't know why I took this." He said, but Rin saw him blushing, so there might be a reason, a very good reason. 

There was a second when Rin thought that it was the perfect moment to confess to Haru. This very moment, when Haru looked his feet instead of matching his eyes, with a very slight touch of pink on his cheeks, with his fist tight and stuck on his side and his adorable pout, like he's too pride to accept his own feelings. At this moment Rin thought, 'Damn, I really am madly in love with him and he still has no idea.' 

He should have told him, sooner, he should have told him now and hugged him and kissed him. 

But a totally different scene happened instead. 

Haru looked above Rin's shoulder and frowned, before looking afraid. His mouth opened as if he wanted to scream and Rin turned around. 

"What was it?" He asked. 

Haru frowned again, "What was what?" 

"That face you did just now." 

"I don't know what you're talking about." 

Rin rolled his eyes, "Haru, don't mess with me, you just looked past my shoulder and-" 

Rin did the same, and when he saw it a cold shiver ran thought his body. He turned back to Haru but when he opened his mouth, he didn't remember what he wanted to talk about. Speaking of Haru, he was now nowhere to be seen. 

"Haru?" Rin called him. 

"Haru!!" Makoto's voice was louder and urgent. 

Haru was crossing the street with his phone in his head and his ice cream in the other. 

He had gone like that without warning, without any purpose. 

The car was driving way too fast. 

It was over in a couple of second, no more. 

Rin checked the time. It was 5:02 PM. 

 

This day felt like watching the same movie again and again, but with a different characters' point of view. Rin was in the waiting room and he was the one hugging Gou when she joined them. She was crying just as hard as the first time – which seemed logical because it was her first time. 

Everyone was just there, sitting, their gaze hollow. Nagisa and Makoto were trying to be optimistic but Rei Cartesian's mind, who had seen the scene in front of his eyes, knew it was too serious to have a happy ending. And for course there was Rin who already knew Haru would never get out of the O.R, because it was not his first time. 

It hurt him just as much. 

The reason he was not crying yet was that he had a watch in his pocket and that after everyone is gone, he would go back into time again to save Haru for good this time. 

His mind was now occupying with other strategies to prevent Haru from going to this precise place and crossing that bloody road at this precise time. The more he thought about it the more odd Rin thought it was. Haru would have never done this in his normal state. What was happening? 

He hold Gou tighter when the doctor announced the bad news. Nagisa cried the loudest, Makoto left the room to take the new alone, Rei took his head in his hands and took off his glasses to cry silently. 

The whole scene was a living nightmare. 

"How are we going to announce this tragedy to the twins?" Makoto's mother said soon after they arrived as well. 

Everything seemed to happen just like 'last time', the nurse came to them saying Haru was ready. 

Rin didn't run away this time. 

Because he knew he could still save Haru, and seeing his dead body could only reinforced his determination. 

He thought he was ready but he was wrong. 

No one is ever ready for something like this. 

It didn't matter how many times he would take to save Haru, the pain would remain the same, always. 

 

"We have a few questions, if it's not too much for you," the doctor said after a few minutes. Rin was holding Haru's hand and no one had objected or commented. It was white but still warm. 

They all nodded silently. 

"We've found marks on his arms," the doctor removed the white sheet. There were black marks on both of his arms – black lines as if he was counting something, there were at least a dozen, and some looked older, perhaps they had started to disappear when Haru took his baths. 

Rin looked at Makoto, "I had no idea," he said. "He never tell me anything." 

"When was the last time you swam together?" Rin asked. 

"Last week, it was with you." Makoto sent a look to Rei and Nagisa and they both shook their head. "No one saw anything. He must have done them after..." 

"Okay. It's not important now, I'm afraid." 

The doctor put the sheet back on Haru's body. He still had an hospital blouse, Makoto's parent went to his house to get proper clothes. 

When they got out of the room everyone start crying again. 

And Rin was counting. 

One hour, one day. 

 

Makoto insisted that they passed the night together. They couldn't go to Haru's house so and meeting the twins in this state was out of the question, so they ended up in Rin's place. 

His mother hold him very tight, "I am so sorry sweetie," she murmured in his ears, tears fell from her face to Rin's shoulder. "I am so sorry." 

Rin allowed himself to cry. 

 

The following day Rin was still thinking of a way to avoid all this. He could physically push him to the ground from 5.00 to 5.03 PM, or hug him. He could have kissed him. He should have. He would, next time. 

He would kiss him for at least three long minutes and Haru would never get hit by a car. They would be only the two of them. He would choose chocolate flavour and Haru cherry, for no reason. He'd take him outside in the park and there, facing the ocean, they would share their first kiss. 

He could saw the scene taking place right in front of him since Rin had walked to that park. The watch was in his hand. "What would I do without you?" He murmured. People might find him crazy to talk to a watch. 

There was a very weird noise, something in between a car's engine and an animal cry, a wheezing, groaning noise. Rin looked around but saw nothing of that sort in the park. He shrugged. 

Nothing would matter once he'd pushed the watch's button. 

Rin studied the watch like the very first day. The hands were still immobile – he took out two more hours -  but the date was accurate (19th of March). On the back, the number 'four' had turned into 'one'. 

He was about to push, but this little detail stopped him. 

"Hey!" A voice said, far away. 

What did it mean?  

"Hey you!" 

Why was the watch...counting down? 

"Doctor I got him!" 

He had pushed that button three times already, this meant that it was his last shot to save Haru. 

Rin's thumb was paralysed. 

"You!" Rin turned his head at least, there was a woman yelling at him, running like a mad man. "Drop the watch!" 

She had fierce red, long hair and brown eyes. Rin could tell because she jumped on him and pinned him to the ground. The watch fell on the ground, the woman stranded his hips and too it from where it fell, smiling. 

"Amy 1, Doctor 0!" She shouted. 

Doctor? 

What was a doctor doing here? 

A man came to them, painting. He had a really strange face with no eyebrow, which made it look like he had a big forehead – and he wore a bowtie! 

"Ah!" He sighed, "why am I the only one not ginger?" 

It was supposed to be a joke, Rin saw it because the woman – Amy?- laughed but he didn't get what was so funny. 

Eventually she let him go and the 'doctor' handed his hand to help him stand up. "Sorry for the...sportive introduction. My friend Amy here  can be excessive some times." 

"Hey!" She gently slapped his arm. "Watch your mouth, raggedy man." 

"What's your name?" The man asked. 

He looked gentle and wise, strangely a lot more older than what his appearance may look like. But all Rin could see was the watch on the woman's hand. "Matsuoka Rin." 

"Oh, you're Japanese!" The man exclaimed.  

"Haven't you notice already?" Amy asked. 

The man turned around in a rather funny way – his moves were clumsy but always hit their target. "I'm so used to end up in London every time there's a alien attack that I thought I'll never see other countries." 

Wait, did he just say the word 'alien'? 

"Rin," the man called him by his first name, "Let me introduce you to Amelia Pond-" 

"Call me Amy, and sorry for earlier, I might have been a bit too...punchy. My mother was punchy." 

The man sent her a suspicious look. 

"We have a few questions to ask, about the object you have in your possession." 

"Can't it wait a bit? I have a very important thing to do with this object I _had_ in my possession and it's rather important." Rin told the weird duo. 

"No it can't." The man said. "There's disturbance in Time. If you don't stop whatever you're doing with this time traveller then you could damage Time itself. Just know that you've overstepped at least a dozen of intergalactic rules about time travelling and that if I found out, the competent authorities will as well and you may end up imprisoned for a couple of human's years." 

"What are you talking about?" Rin couldn't understand a word the man was saying. 

He took the watch from his friend's hand. "This," the man said, "Is alien technology. It's very old and very powerful, the kind of object that should never been in an human's hand because they have no idea of what it implies and they always listen to their heart instead of following the law of the Universe!" 

"Doctor, maybe we should talk about this in the TARDIS. People are watching us." 

The what? 

The doctor turned to Amy, playing with his hands. "That is an excellent idea, Amy Pond. Come along!" 

And they walked away, with his watch! How dare they! 

"Aren't you coming?" Amelia shouted at Rin when she noticed he wasn't following their path. 

"Why would I?" They looked inside, straight out of an asylum – who wore bowtie this days? 

"We have your watch," Amelia replied. "If you want to save your friend you have to follow us." 

Defeated, Rin joined them. 

It was all to save Haru. 

He would go to the TARDIS – was that the name of a new bar or something? - and as soon as their attention would drop, he'd take the watch back and save Haru. That was a brilliant plan. 

It seemed the man had a better one thought. 

They arrived at the very end of the park, surrounded by trees there was a blue police box from the UK. In the middle of a park in Iwami. 

Rin bit his cheek to be sure he wasn't having another very strange dream but it only hurt. This was the real deal. 

"This is the TARDIS." Amelia told him. The man opened the door. "Before you get in, you need to know that it's not as small as it looks from the outside." 

"I'm not going in until you tell me what this is all about. What is this thing? Why is it here? I've never seen it before." Why were they forbidding him to save Haru? 

"The TARDIS...my oldest friend," the man started, "It's also my spaceship, and a time travelling machine. I could take you anywhere in the whole Universe, at any time." 

"This is ridiculous." 

"I've just met Churchill." Amelia told him. "We took a picture, see?" 

She took out the said picture out of her bag and Rin had to surrender once more. There was indeed, Churchill and these two people together, next to what looked like a metallic bin decorated with bulbs and a hand whist. 

"That's a dalek," Amelia told him. "Very bad aliens. They want to exterminate the whole Universe." 

Rin looked at her as if she was talking in Chinese. 

"Who are you?" Rin asked the man with the bowtie. "Who are you to possess...this? Who are you to be able to go back in time?" 

The man leaned on his blue box and fixed his bowtie. 

"I am the Doctor," he simply said. "I'm a Time Lord, an alien, I came from far away. And I'm here to help you." 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Plays "I'm a the doctor' theme in the distance*


	3. III

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is where it gets complicated. If you're not used to watch Doctor Who or any time traveling stories, take notes.

For the non whovians, this is what the Characters look like :

[Amelia](http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02086/karen_gillan_2086657b.jpg) [Pond](http://i.skyrock.net/9611/78949611/pics/3014865617_1_29_qJ1xURtv.jpg)  ([comics Amy](http://static8.comicvine.com/uploads/square_medium/2/26462/1834365-dw1_amy2.jpg)) / [The](http://www.ctvnews.ca/polopoly_fs/1.1493493.1381496833!/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_960/image.jpg) [Doctor](http://cdn.collider.com/wp-content/uploads/matt-smith-doctor-who-image-01.jpg) ([comics](http://www.readaboutcomics.com/images/2011/012811_doctorwho03.jpg)) / [The TARDIS](http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/unofficial-nerdcubed/images/d/d7/Tardis.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20130702013111) [(in](https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4067/4476262548_541ccaa48c.jpg) and[ out](http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/tardis/images/a/ac/Ninth_Tenth_Doctor_control_room.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20131111033555)) / a [dalek](http://jaypgreene.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/daleks-2.jpg)

 

 

 

Amelia Pond, what a fantastic name. The Doctor was gazing to her flaming red hair – it was not, by any mean, out of jealousy – then to the TARDIS's screen, where more pressing matters awaited him. 

The TARDIS crashed in Amy's garden for a reason, and this reason might be the crack on Amy's wall, the one of her bedroom just behind her bed – the one where the Doctor had found a piece of the TARDIS, of his TARDIS, a piece, meaning it had been...blast, some time in the future. His mind was fully concentrated with this new puzzle and it's with an absolute absence of surprise that the Doctor adored every second of it. He loved mysteries. He loved discovering something he hadn't understood yet. They were so rare. 

Back to the screen now. The TARDIS had localized a signal, same as the one his sonic screwdriver had recorded in Amy's room. Another crack, probably. It was situated in a small town of Iwami in Japan, and would appeared the 19th of March, at exactly 5.02 PM. 

"What are you," he murmured to himself, "Where do you come from? How did you appear, and why here? Why in Amy's room?" 

Why did he find a piece of his most faithful friend inside? What was it, behind the crack? 

"Amy, we're going!" 

"Where?" She ran to his side, her eyes full of excitement; "Where? When? Who? Are we going to the museum you told me about last time?" 

"That would be our next stop," he told her. "For now, we have an urgent matter!" 

The Doctor landed the TARDIS next to a road, and a shop with pale blue awning. He saw the excitation on Amy's face decreased as she got out of the TARDIS. "Oh, we're on Earth. And-" there were cars and people walking with their headphones on the street. "-and we're in modern time." 

"There's a beach!" The Doctor said, trying his best to disguise the purpose of their visit without giving Amy any clue about his true concern. 

"You could have taken me to any beach of the whole Universe and you chose this one? Seriously?" 

"Amy, right here, in a couple of minutes, something really important is going to happen," the Doctor explained. "Important for me and also, important for you. Now, we just have to watch and then, the fun starts!" 

"By fun, do you mean deadly aliens?" Amy asked. 

"Possibly." 

She smiled. "Yeah! I'm on it." 

She put her hand in the air, apparently waiting for something and the more the Doctor looked at the palm of her hand the more annoyed she looked. "It's a high five, Doctor. Just do the same as me." 

"Oh!" The Doctor raised his hand just next to his face and Amy slapped it with her own, maybe harsher than she had first thought she would do. 

 

They were sitting on a bench near the ice cream shop – Amy had insisted that they tasted some, and so the Doctor was savouring a tea mactha flavour one while Amy decided to stick with her absolute favourite chocolate flavour – and watched people to kill time before the 'event' occurred. 

"Nice hair," she said about a young man with red as red as hers. 

"He looks in trouble," the Doctor said. 

"He's having a fight with his boyfriend, it's no big deal."  

The Doctor turned to meet her face. "How do you know they're together?" 

"Oh, they are not, not yet but, look how close they are standing to each other? And the way they are doing their best not to look at each others' eyes? Oh! The hot guy's shirt got dirty now." 

The Doctor checked the hour. 4.52 PM. Ten more minutes to go. 

"Did you just call the angry guy hot?" 

"How do you know he's angry?" Amy remarked. "they are talking Japanese." 

"The TARDIS translates everything." The Doctor pointed his sonic screwdriver to Amy's direction and suddenly she could understand Japanese. 

The other guy – the black haired, silent one – remained still for a couple of minute, watching his friend go in the middle of the sidewalk. 

"He looks very sad." Amy pointed out. 

Indeed the man had very sad blue eyes. "It's difficult to watch someone you love leave you," the Doctor said, gravely. Amy gave him a bemused look, and so he added quickly, "I think." 

He didn't want to talk about his past now. It was way too soon. Talking about the past never brought back anyone after all. They stopped talking for a while. 

 

"Doctor!" Amy grasped his arm suddenly, where tightly, her voice was quivering, "Doctor!" She called him. 

"What's happening Amy?" 

She looked back at him, and the fear on her face was gone in an instant. "What?" 

"You just shouted my name and hurt my poor arm, do you remember?" 

She looked confused, "Yeah," she said, thinking hard, "Yeah I, I remember...no I don't. Where is the lonely guy?" 

With his red ice cream firmly secured in his left hand the man walked to the other side of street. 

"He's not watching before crossing," Amy noticed. 

And then, a car hurtled from nowhere; of course the man didn't see it coming. 

Amy let our a cry when the Doctor checked the time. 5.02 PM.  

 

People gathered quickly around the accident. The Doctor scanned the place with his screwdriver : no alien presence detected. No traces of the crack either. 

"Do you think he's going to make it?" Amy asked him as they watched the ambulance go. 

"How should I know?" 

"You're the Doctor! I mean you didn't choose that name out of the blue." 

"Time Lords and humans aren't exactly the same thing, are they?" The Doctor said. 

There was no doubt this man's accident had a link with what the TARDIS had analysed. Now the question was to discover why. 

"It's so sad." Amy was still thinking of the other man with red hair, the one who got away, "They'll never see each other again." 

"Why are you so sad about that?" The Doctor asked. 

"Well, because it is? It's just horrible to think you'll never see the person you love again." She replied. "You have two hearts, you should be twice as sad as I am." 

He gave her a sad smile, and they started their investigation. They were looking for anything that might be a clue, something out of the ordinary, something that would prove there was an alien presence in town – anything. 

They hid the TARDIS in the park just next to where they had landed. It had stopped exactly where the signal was coming from, but the wall of the ice cream shop was immaculate except for some of the lonely man's blood. 

"It's just a wall." The Doctor said. 

"Did you except anything else?" 

From his absence of reply Amy understood that indeed, he did. 

 

They were running out of idea when finally, something happened a couple of hours later. Something big. 

"Time," the Doctor whispered. "Someone is playing with Time." 

He took Amy's wrist, "Run!" And they reached the TARDIS before it was too late. There was a loud noise as if the world was collapsing under his own weight, and white light came under the TARDIS's door. Silence came back just as quickly as it had gone. 

When they came out, the world was fine, just as fine as the one they had left, actually. It was the same, but just a couple of hours back into time.

"So, you're telling me that something or someone or maybe the alien we're looking for...rewound Time?" 

"Exactly! It's totally forbidden in a dozen of galaxies-" 

"But you're doing it all the time!" Amy cut him. 

"It's not the same thing!" The Doctor told her, and took a piece of paper "Look. When we travel in time and space, we go back into time but, our own time line-" he drew some lines, making a circle, "still goes on. Which means that if I go back into time of my own time line..." 

"There will be two doctors." Amy ended. 

"And the two most never see each other, it's another of the most important rule!" The Doctor exclaimed. 

"And what just happened then?" 

"Someone went back into his own timeline, and dragged with him the rest of his surroundings. There will never be two of them. It's like erasing a sketch with a rubber." The Doctor took one from his vest – Amy raised her eyebrow at this exploit – and tried to erase the lines he just drew, in vain. He had used a biro. 

"So we almost got erased..." Amy murmured. 

"Well it doesn't look as bad as it sounds Amy," she frowned, the Doctor cleared his throat "I mean, we wouldn't have died. We would have been brought back into the moment the time...rewinder...chose to start over. A day, a week, a month..." 

"Maybe years...?" Amy wondered.

 

They sat on the same spot this time, Amy had tightened up her shoes so that she could run faster to save her neck this time, and in silence they observed what this new Monday would have to offer. 

Everything happened exactly the same though. 

"How are we going to find what's constantly perturbing Time if everything happens the same?" Amy whined in the begining of the afternoon. 

"Ah, Amy Pond, you think like a human." 

Amy lifted her eyes, "Well, yeah; I am one." 

"It's true that what we're looking for in the end is something that is doomed to happen, at 5.02PM exactly, but, at the moment, we're looking for anything different than last time." The Doctor adjusted his bowtie and smiled, he loved to explain his thoughts, to be brilliant in someone else's eyes. "Because Time had been rewound, and this means something is going to change, and this will give us a clue of what we have to look for." 

And indeed the Doctor was right – but was he ever wrong? As they sat on the blue bench – the same colour as the TARDIS, the Doctor noticed – with their ice creams, someone came next to them. Amy let him some place. It was the guy who got hit by the car, and he was alone. 

Amy was about to speak but the Doctor forbade her to. They needed more information. 

"Hey," Amy started the conversation despite the Doctor's warning, and could feel him boiling over her. "You should have one," she showed her cone, bitter chocolate flavour, "It's really good." 

Blue eyes met hers, and Amy swore she had never seen someone as sad as this boy, except maybe the Doctor when he thought she wasn't looking. She wondered what made him look so sad. 

It was dead on 5 o'clock when he abruptly rose without a word, without a look. He walked to the other side of the street, got himself an ice cream and then, crosses the road, without looking. The Doctor had to hold Amy back to prevent her from running to her certain death as well by jumping in between the boy and the car.  

He lied in the exact same position, the Doctor noticed, his arms and legs hadn't moved compared to last time. This was everything he was looking for : the change and the constant, reunited in one boy, the origin of the crack being his death. 

And the disruptive element, who was missing that time, was the redhead guy standing being the yellow line, horrified, his eyes unable to leave the traces of blood his friend left behind. It was him. He was the time rewinder. 

 

The Doctor had found his new mystery. There was a human down there who owned a very old artefact, gifted with a terrible power. Going back into time wasn't such an easy thing, and doing it out of the rule could damage Time itself. He had himself tested the limits of what the TARDIS could and could not do, and judging the reaction of the Earth, this human was doing it wrong. 

Could this be enough to produce those cracks? 

The hot guy with the dirty T-shirt. 

(The name were Amy's idea.) 

"So, we're looking for hot guy or lonely man. How do we do?" Amy asked. 

"If only I had scanned their faces the TARDIS would tell us!" 

The Doctor scratched his head and fixed his bowtie. "Let's think, think! Think...they are young." 

"Definitely." 

"Younger than you." 

"Hey!" Amy whined. 

"How old are you Amy?" 

She slapped him in the arm. "It's not something you ask a lady." 

They decided to look to the school nearby. According to Amy the two of them must be in high school, no more. 

"I think I found lonely guy." Amy whispered. They were disguised as caretakers inside the first high school they found – the TARDIS translated it as 'flying rock' - and he was, actually, not lonely at all. 

There was always another tall guy with him – Amy named him big mama because it 'was obvious', the Doctor was still thinking about what she meant – with green eyes and often two others, a little blond – that was Pikachu – and a one with glasses – named Clark Kent. 

Soon Amy and the doctor were spying on ex-lonely man, big mama, Pikachu and Clark Kent. 

And they followed the group to, oh surprise! The ice cream shop! 

"Your hot guy is not here." The Doctor commented. 

Amy sent him a dark glare. 

"Oh, no! I didn't mean it like that. I mean, it's interesting. It's definitely not the same scene as yesterday. Which means..." 

"Oh! It means the red hot guy did it!" Amy exclaimed. "He cancelled their date to save his precious boyfriend." 

"But ex-lonely man came here anyway. That's...interesting." 

 

A couple of minutes later hot guy joined the group inside the shop. He must have learned that his boyfriend came here anyway, he ran to rescue him. 

Except he didn't. 

The scene appeared almost unbelievable. The man, out of nowhere, aimlessly walked in the middle of the street without looking and got hit by the car, again, at the exact same place. 

When Amy was about to reach the group of friend, the Doctor stopped her, "Not now," he spoke, "We need to be sure it's him, and more importantly, how he's rewinding time." 

Their journey ended in front of the Matsuoka's residence. They waited for long hours, but no one came out. 

"We should go inside," Amy whispered. "If he's rewinding time from his bed we won't be able to stop him!" 

"I would feel the Time collapsing before it ever happened, plus I parked the TARDIS the behind us don't worry," the Doctor replied. 

"It's not the problem!" 

"What's bothering you Pond?" 

Amy was biting her lips, she didn't look anxious at all, she looked...angry. "Why hasn't he done it yet? Why isn't he saving his friend?" 

The Doctor looked for an answer, but nothing came to his mind. "I can't read his mind!" 

"Maybe he doesn't love him," Amy sat on the grass and crossed her arms on her knees, hiding her chin there, "Maybe they are not together after all." 

"He's probably just thinking of how to properly do it now that he missed the first time. That's what I would have done, if my opinion counts, for you." 

"But you're a Time Lord. You said it yourself. Humans aren't Time Lords." Amy replied. 

The Doctor watched the hot guy's window all night long while Amy slept in the TARDIS. In the end he had waited until the sun was up to move. They followed him to the park just in front of the ice cream shop. 

"That's him," Amy said, "That's definitely him. We need to stop him." 

She jumped out of the bush where they were hiding before the Doctor could stop her. "Wait!" He said, "I need to see what kind of artefact he's using! It could be-" he started running after her, "It could be dangerous!" 

"More dangerous than a dalek?" Amu asked without slowing down. 

"Of course not! Nothing's worse than a dalek." 

"Than I'll be fine! Hey! Hey you!" 

 

 

* * *

 

 

It was exactly like Amy said : the TARDIS was bigger on the inside. Literally. He had entered a door of a blue police box and found himself in a palace. The place was huge. 

It was a spaceship. 

These two weird people were time travellers, and one of them was actually an alien who was more than 900 year old. 

Rin was still dreaming – a very convincing dream but a dream still. 

"So you understand clearly that you cannot used that item again unless you want to make the Time collapse and doomed the whole Galaxy, even maybe the whole Universe." 

Rin looked at the weird man – the one who wouldn't give his name and call himself the doctor – and tried to figure out what was out with him. "I didn't understand a single thing you said." 

The Doctor looked disappointed. 

"Basically we cannot give this pocket watch back to you." Amy said. Rin liked Amy. She had spirit and knew which words to use. 

"But how am I going to save Haru if you don't give it back to me?" 

"Did you listen to what we were saying?" Amy asked him, and the Doctor nodded in approval - 'Thank you Amy' he said. "We're in a time traveling spaceship! We can bring you back at anytime you want!" 

"Well, not really," the Doctor added before Rin could have the time to smile. "There are some conditions. Strict conditions. Time isn't a game. We don't play with time we manipulate it with extreme and delicate precautions." 

"So what, you're going to help me? Save Haru?" 

Amy nodded, and the smile on her face was so bright that the Doctor didn't have any second thoughts. Why not after all? Saving life, that was his job, after all. 

"But first, you have to tell me all about the watch. Who gave it to you? How did you manage to control it?" 

Rin told them about his grandfather and the package, a grandfather he didn't know well, just as his grandmother - who had died before he was born.  

"Then I accidentally pushed the button-" Rin showed them the top of the watch, "After I set the time correctly but I woke up in my own bed." 

"So you used it two times?" The Doctor asked. 

"...Three. Actually three times. I...this is so embarrassing." 

The more Rin blushed the more Amy found him adorable. "It was because of your friend Haruka, right?" 

Rin gulped at the mention of the name, the subject still burned his throat as if he was still standing in front of his dead body. "I...yes, I guess. I wasn't pleased with our first meeting so I...kinda...wanted to do it all over again. I didn't know it would be so bad." 

The Doctor nodded, "That was-" 

"Pretty understandable." Amy cut him. "You love him, don't you?" 

Rin cheek's turned as red as his hair, and so Amy got her answer. The Doctor never understood what she was so happy about. 

 

"So, basically, what are going to do?" 

Rin sat on the TARDIS's step while Amy was watching the Doctor paces up and down. The situation wasn't an easy one, simply because they needed to use the TARDIS, which meant they had to avoid seeing their own selves. The major problem was Rin, because he was just next to Haru when he crossed the road. It was out of the question to let him go back to the scene of the accident, despite his pleads and heavy tears. They could not compromise Time anymore than it was already. 

"You need to remember everything you did yesterday," the Doctor took a piece a paper and gave it to Rin, along with a pen, "Write it down and give it to Amy. Is there anything you can think of that could prevent Haru from going to the ice cream shop?" 

"I tried, honestly," Rin started to write his time table as he spoke, "Makoto, his best friend, told me he was nearly obsessed with the idea of joining me there. He said it was really...important to him..." 

The paper got wet with his tears. When she got it back, Amy said, "Doctor, if you don't save this kid, I will never forgive you." She had never seemed so serious. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's probably a lot of DW references I didn't explain because it's obvious to me, I'm sorry for that but I can't see them.  
> See you tomorrow !


	4. IV

Some of you might recognize who the big mean aliens are but I'm sure you already knew what they were hahaha.

See the end note for a pretty picture

IV.

 

 

Rin had stayed at home the whole day Haru died, so staying home again was out of the question - they couldn't even get inside to take a new shirt because there was too much risk of jumping unto the other Rin - but this also meant he could go anywhere else to meet Haru before the end of the day. 

"Remember, choose the right moment," the Doctor warned him. "If it still doesn't work we can still use the TARDIS to get you back into time but then we will have to avoid meeting two of you!" 

"I know, I got it the first time," Rin replied. He was on edge. There was very little things he could say to Haru to make him change his mind. Things he thought Haru was about to say the first time they had their first date, things he had dodged before running away, before leaving Haru behind, before he lost his life. "I know what to do. Let's do it." 

The Doctor set the TARDIS and they landed on Earth, a couple of hours ago. 

It was lunch time on the 19th of March, they had ended up on Iwatobi school's roof. 

"We'll get you back as soon as you send the signal. Good luck!" Amy hugged him before going back to the TARDIS with the Doctor. She closed the door. 

"So, what are we gonna do?" 

The Doctor was smiling, but it was not his 'Look I am so brilliant' smile, it was the smile of a child who was about to eat his favourite cake – or in the Doctor's case, fish custard – and Amy didn't like it one bit. 

"Amy Pond, would you like to sell ice creams with me?" He demanded. 

They landed at the same place as the first day they spent in Iwami. Before entering the shop, the Doctor checked that there was nothing on the wall -"it's just a damn wall, Doctor!" Amy scowled – and then the fun started. 

Knocking the two employers was actually more fun than Amy had expected, and she decided to ignore that fact for the time being. They needed to concentrate on their mission. 

Saving Haruka if Rin failed. 

And studying the surroundings in case something strange roamed, something like...deadly aliens. 

 

"Haru!" 

You would think that, in front of such an urgent and vital situation, Rin would know exactly the words he wanted to tell him, you could even imagine that he repeated them over and over again, a hundred times maybe until the pace and accentuation burned his memory, until he only knew those words and forgot everything else. If you did then, you were wrong. Because Rin was in such a rueful state that nothing came to his mind. He lied to the Doctor and more importantly, he lied to himself. He didn't know how to save Haru, because he saw it in his eyes when they were still standing on the same sidewalk. It had not been Haru. There had been something off the moment he had looked scared, and then he pretended nothing happened. 

The fact that an actual alien and his friend attacked him the day before comforted him in his belief that, if anything, it was a supernatural force which caused Haru to meet his death and not Haru's own feet. 

Therefore, Rin didn't only need to convince Haru, he needed to find out how to lure this supernatural entity out of Haru's path, out of their lives, so that they could finally be happy together. 

And since he had no idea of how to make this last statement happened he hadn't thought about what to say to Haru. 

The boy who hunted his dream since 8th grade turned around as if he had seen a ghost. Of course he was surprised, since Rin was supposed to be stuck at home with...a huge diarrhoea. What a day to be alive. 

"What are you doing here?" Haru asked. 

They had gone in a quiet place, just the two of them, strangely the corridor were Rin's back leaned was totally empty. "I wanted to see you." 

To see you alive, to look into your eyes, to hear your voice again. This could not be the end. He had to find something. His eyes watered when he realized it could be the last conversation they had. 

"I thought you were sick." 

"I know, I am," Rin lied, but what importance this small lie had when Haru's life was in the line, "I was scared that you misunderstood what I said, so I came here to explain." 

"What you wrote was very clear," Rin suddenly realized how stupid he had been, and regretted immediately that he hadn't thought about his catch phrases a little bit more seriously. "I don't think I need you to explain any further." 

"I wanted to see you, really. I didn't fall sick on purpose." (This was exactly what he did though.)

"And now you're here and perfectly fine." 

"I took some meds," Rin lied again, "it helps." 

"I guess." Haru murmured, his eyes were facing the ground. He thought Rin was lying, that was pretty obvious.  

"I thought about it all week," Rin started, "About seeing you, I thought about you all week." 

He had been thinking about Haru for years but that, he couldn't say it aloud, not yet, even with their ending threatening to be so close to this moment. "Really?" Haru asked. 

"Yeah," and then, Rin realized he'd need to push his luck if he wanted to beat the supernatural forces who wanted to take his Haru from him; from this thought strength grew out in his belly and came to his throat, and he spoke words he would have never thought he could have said to Haru's, when then eyes were meeting, staring at the other not even a meter away. "Didn't you?" 

"What?" 

"Thought about it, about me; about what you wanted to talk about?" 

Haru looked bemused, as if Rin had thrown a ice bucket on his face. After thought he would have been pleased with the eventuality, but let's say Haru wore the expression of any average man whom an ice bucket had been thrown at. 

"I...I might have." His reply came, and Rin didn't think it could be just that simple. 

 

Haru leaned on the wall just next to Rin, and listened to was Rin had to say. It started with the day they first met, Rin talked closely to what he had already done a couple of weeks ago when they were in Australia – it felt like yesterday in their minds and hearts – but he added some important details about how he felt, about how he had fell, so insidiously and so terribly. 

His 'Without you I have nothing to aim for' had a different meaning in Haru's ears now. Yet, he remained silent and it drove Rin mad. Sometimes he wished he could read his mind, especially now, especially when he recalled how strange he was when he had crossed the road and died; but loving Haru was loving the mystery, it was loving to guess, it was a game and a bet, it was everything but knowing by advance what the day would be made of. 

"I thought you were too bright," Haru said, at some point, "When I first met you were so loud, so bright, you were everything I had been running off all my life. You reminded me how empty my house felt by making my days more lively than they ever had been." 

Haru told him how long it took him to finally understand his feelings for Rin. How hard it had been to acknowledge that he had been the most important thing, the spark, the trigger that made him discovered his own true self. 

"You are still too bright to me, but I feel like it's exactly what I need. You are exactly what I need. All of you." 

Haru didn't blush until he saw Rin's tears running down his burned cheeks, his eyes shining – whatever he was doing there was always something in Rin that shone, always – and his mouth curling into the brightest smile he had been given the chance to see. 

Rin was happy. 

And Haru made him, all by himself. 

When Rin hugged him he was anything but surprised; he hugged back and felt like he could stay like that forever. 

The corridor was still impossibly empty. 

"Ah," Rin finished crying, "Ah, it feels so good to finally tell you. I've been holding back for years." 

Haru blushed even more and hid his face in the crook of Rin's neck. "Shut up" he muttered there. 

"But it's true! Gosh, Haru if only..." Rin caressed his hair gently; as the words ran out of his mouth like a river he felt his heart grew cold. Because it could not be enough. Because even if it was, indeed, enough to stop Haru from dying Rin would leave Japan soon, too soon. 

Haru was holding him to tightly against his chest, even in his wildest dream Haru didn't react as much as he was now. "I'm so glad you came to me." He said. 

Rin didn't really know what he was meaning by that. But it did not matter, not anymore. 

They made an agreement. They would meet at his home near five o'clock, to talk and 'play video games' - which was, in Rin's mind, the universal code for making out, but for some reason he doubted Haru knew any male sex code for those kind of activities – and most importantly, Haru wouldn't be near the ice cream shop, or anywhere near a road or a car driving too fast for such a small city. 

Their first date had been cancelled, Rin had never been happier in his life. 

 

 

Amy was serving her last client when she got Rin's text. _'I did it!'_ It read. Amy shouted. She could, since there was no one in the shop. 

All thanks to the Doctor. 

"You know when people order something they actually want to eat what they ordered and not the weird associations you're doing." 

"But why would you go in a Japanese ice cream shop to taste...chocolate and vanilla? When there's matcha, sesame-" 

"They _are_ Japanese! You're the tourist, not them." 

The Doctor was scowling in front of the checkout. It was empty. 

"So, we can go back now," Amy said as she put down her paper hat. 

To her surprise she was the only one willing to leave; there was still something troubling the Doctor, and that thing was the wall of the ice cream shop – it was after all, why they got there in the first place. 

For the crack, in her wall, and in this one too. 

"We're going to stay until 5.02PM and then, we will meet Rin again. If the crack doesn't appear at least I have to clarify the mystery of the watch. Who sent it to him? Because that person probably knew about Haru's fate." 

"So you mean someone from his future sent it to Rin to save Haru?" Amy formulated. 

"Someone from the future...but who?" 

To their great disappointment the town of Iwami was naïve from any alien activity apart from Rin's item, there was nothing leading to believe that someone in touch with one of the boys had the ability to send alien technology in the past. 

To be honest, the soon conclusion of their first Japanese adventive left the Doctor a bit hungry for more. 

And to Rin's misfortune, his call was answered, a few minutes before 5 o'clock. 

"Hello!" 

The next customer was tall and gifted with an impressive build for his age. Amy immediately recognized him as 'big mama'. 

Haru followed his friend's steps, hastily. There was something urgent in his moves and eyes, but overall he looked rather...happy, more than Amy had the chance to see so far. 

She was horrified by the sight of Haru standing here, so close to his potential death, that she forgot to take their order. The Doctor obliged very greatfully, and none of the boy ended up with what they had ordered. 

Amy used this excuse to have a private talk with 'this very disable co-worker she has to tutor'. "What are we doing?" 

"Buying time!" The Doctor whispered. "Maybe if they don't have their orders they'll stay here and buy a new one!" 

"But that's totally silly! Look, I take care of Haru, you take care of big mama." Amy decided. 

"What am I supposed to do with big mama?" 

"I don't know. Talk about how bowties are cool or some weather talk, everything will do!" 

"And what are you going to do with Haruka?" The Doctor asked her, because from the fire in her eyes, he guessed Amy didn't plan on having a nice chat with the boy. 

"The same thing I did to Rin : pin him to the ground until the time comes." 

Amy often acted like a rugby player. For those who are wondering, she was Scottish, which explains probably a lot of her character. 

 

When they came back Amy caught them having a serious conversation. It was about Rin – who else? It seemed he had confessed, and Haru was about to meet him at his place but was feeling anxious. He had gone here to seek advice from his best friend. That was as simple as that. 

"If you want my advice," Haru never asked for Amy's advice, by the way, but she saw there the chance to prevent Haru's fall and took it on the fly, "I know gingers tend to be impatient and panic when people are late to date – believe me I'm a ginger myself-" 

"How do you know he's ginger?" Haru asked her. 

Amy had never felt more stupid. Sometimes, letting to the Doctor do his magical tricks actually sounded like a good idea. 

"Well," the Doctor sent a death glare to Amy, "well, if my colleague knows about this little detail, it's that, it's simple, it's actually that your friend came here before you got here!" 

"Yes!" Amy exclaimed, "He told us about your date and show me a picture of you. A pretty picture." 

Haru looked trouble, "What was Rin doing here?" 

"Maybe he wanted to see the place you so dearly wanted to show him." His friend said, and at least the Doctor understood why Amy had named him 'big mama'. That was an evidence indeed. 

"...Rin had shown me so many sights he loves, he had shared so many things with me...I really wanted to share this with him, to share a place I love. I wanted this time to be my turn" 

As the words left Haru's lips, something terrible happened in the Doctor's mind, something he would never shared with Amy, and definitely not with Rin, if it could be avoided. 

"Amy," the Doctor said gravely, "You should call Rin. Tell him Haru's here. Tell him he maybe did too much." 

It was almost 5 o'clock, and the Doctor had a bad feeling about this. The whole thing made no sense from the start, meaning he was missing something. 

First, the TARDIS feeling the energy of the crack, which was supposed to appear this day at 5.02 PM exactly. When they got there though it was nowhere in sight. Which meant that if the crack was about to appear, it would be caused by time travelling. 

They had thought Rin would be the one causing the crack to be born, but what if they were wrong from the start? 

There was something they couldn't see yet, something dangerous, and as long as their enemy remained invisible they would loose, and Haru would keep dying again and again. 

Again and again... 

Lost in his thoughts the Doctor lost sight of the most important thing. The boy was gone, and his friend was running after him. 

"Haru! Wait we haven't paid yet!" Makoto shouted at him, but his friend was already walking in the street. 

 

 

_"It's really weird,"_ Rin started before Amy could say something, _"My memories from the day before are changing. Like, I don't remember going to the Ice shop anymore, and if I haven't written it down before everything vanished from my mind I would have been sceptical – I could even forget about you!"_

"Since his future self changed the past, the memories of his past self are getting rewritten and so, they are altering the future Rin's memories." Amy mumbled to herself.  

_"What were you saying?"_ Rin asked. 

It was a difficult task to accomplish, Amy thought, because by the sound of his voice Rin must be erratic, on cloud nine after he was so certain he had saved Haru. 

"Rin, I'm afraid it didn't work. Haru is here." 

_"What?_ " 

Hope had left his voice altogether. On the other line the noise of a car braking could be heard, and it meant everything – it meant failure, it meant defeat, it meant death. 

Amy ran even if she knew it was too late. It was the third time she witnessed the blood on the road, making the exact same form, the same car, the same driver, the same people...the Doctor was standing next to her, and from her blurry vision she found it odd that he did not looked at Haru's body. 

Instead, his gaze was fixed on someone on the other side of the street. Well, rather than someone, we should said something. A creature. The Alien they had been looking for. 

What struck her first wasn't its big, white head, looking like a skull – it was that the Alien was wearing a black tuxedo. 

"Who are you?" She heard the Doctor shouted, and in his voice she heard his pain and anger. 

He waited for an answer but it never came. The alien was staring at them and yet he didn't move, instead it turned its heels and left the scene, wordlessly. 

"Hey! Doctor!" Amy shouted, she turned her head and grabbed his arm. "It's..." 

"Amy?" 

"Yes Doctor?" 

"Why are you grabbing my arm like that again?" He asked her. 

Amy frowned, indeed she was tightly holding the Doctor's arm, and couldn't remember why. 

 

The repetition of the followings events made Rin shiver with cold sweat. The worst parts were assuredly the words people used. It was the exact replication of the ones in his memories. Rin felt like watching the same movie over again but it was no fiction, it was life, his life, Haru's...no more. 

Gou arrived in tears, Makoto's mother wondered about the twins, the nurse came to them asking if they wanted to see his body. It wasn't just the words, it was the tone, the rhythm, everything was strictly identic from a day to another – it was of course the same day for them, but not for Rin. Rin remembered everything. 

One thing had changed thought, he realized later. 

There were 18 marks on Haru's arms this time, and not 12. 

 

 

Amy and the Doctor were waiting for him outside the hospital. 

"Come back tomorrow, " Rin told them, "I need to stay with them." 

The Doctor nodded, showing he understood, and they waiting until he disappeared being the door to get back into the TARDIS. 

"Doctor," 

Amy stopped before stepping in. 

"Doctor, remember what I told you. Save him," she repeated, "Save him or I will never forgive you." 

Her eyes were glued to the ground, but the Doctor saw her tears through the locks of red, and hated himself when no word of comfort came to his lips.

 

* * *

 

[Here are the bad guys](http://images.amcnetworks.com/bbcamerica.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/silence.jpg)

[some more hints](http://ih0.redbubble.net/image.26016148.8584/sticker,375x360.png)

[for those who want](https://slouchingtowardsthatcham.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/doctor-who-s6e2-amy-pond.jpg)

 

So of course this Doctor comes from early season 5 so they have no idea of who the Silence are.

We could discuss the presence of those here but, let's leave that for comments.

 

The Doctor and Rin will try to save Haru once again in next chapter with the help of the TARDIS ! will it be enough?

 

 

 

 


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All the Doctor Who reference I'm making are killing me.  
> Anyway  
> *is ready for tomatoes*

**V**

 

 

Rin was studying the watch in a painstaking way before his new meeting with the Doctor. The Time lord wasn't the only one wondering about the small object; the fact that his grandfather sent it to him the eve of Haru's death was troubling. It couldn't be a coincidence. His mother had left home already so he couldn't ask her about details, and within the hour Rin realized how little he knew about his grandfather. He just knew he had been adopter after world war two and came back to Japan when he came of age, but never cared about where he had lived, what he had done with his life.  

He tried to call him but no one replied. After all he was back in America since at least ten years, and thanked to time zones, he was probably sleeping tightly. 

Of course they could go there with the TARDIS, if only Rin had knew where he could find him...there were so many things he had to ask. How did he know Rin would need this? 

 

Amy was visiting the place while the Doctor and Rin were discussing their future plan. There were a lot of books on the living room, some of them were in English to her greatest surprised. 

"Do you have any idea of what to do?" She heard the Doctor said as she took one book to look at the cover. 

"Yeah," Rin replied. "Haru's fate was the same but there were, indeed, things that I was able to change. Haru went to the ice cream shop with Makoto only and they didn't invite me. Which means that I wasn't there when Haru got hit by the car. It's very simple, actually; I'll burst out of nowhere and kissed him until 5.02 PM passes, and then he will be saved and you two can go back into your space machine-" 

"The TARDIS," The Doctor rectified. 

"Whatever. And I'll give you the watch if you insist," Rin took it from his jean pocket. "As soon as Haru is saved, it will be yours." 

The Doctor studied the pocket watch while Rin gave Amy the tour of his house. He drew the outline if the '1' incrusted in its back with his forefinger. One more chance, it meant. Only one more chance to save Haru... 

Rin had told him about how repetitive the 19th of March had been to him, and from his experience, he honestly started to consider a worst-case scenario. 

What could be worse than death, you probably wonder? 

A death which cannot be changed. 

"So do we call it a plan?" 

The Doctor had been too lost in his thought to realize Amy and Rin were standing right in front of him. They had the same fire, the same determination in their eyes. 

"Are you sure this will work?" The Doctor asked him. 

Rin smirked, he looked confident. "You tell me. You're the Doctor, after all." 

"What if it does not?" 

Rin's smile evaporated as soon as the ask was heard. "It will." Rin replied, but his voice had lost his confidence in the eyes of a sad man, a wise man, the wiser he had ever met. 

Time was not that easy to bend. 

 

When they were back in the TARDIS Amy looked after Rin, which steps had become unsure and tottering as soon as he met the stair. "Write down everything you remembered you did yesterday. We'll use the time we have to investigate. Remember, there are two of you." 

Rin wrote down every ones of his moves – for Rin 1 and Rin 2 – and even read every texts he had sent or got the day before. They had chosen to come back a couple of hours before the accident to check for anything out of the ordinary they could have missed. But Amy and the Doctor couldn't go back to the place of the accident since they had been at the ice cream shop all day. Rin would go there alone, and the other two in town near Haru's house and high school. 

He had brought the watch with him, as always, this time with the package – there were still things he wanted to work on, like, the enigmatic message at the bottom of the box. 

The Doctor landed the TARDIS in the park next to Rin's spot of the day. 

"Are you sure you don't want Amy with you?" He asked the boy. 

"I'll be fine." 

"Honestly Doctor I think you need me than he needs me." Amy mocked him. "He'll be fine on his own. Plus, we'll come back if anything. You can call me." 

She mimicked picking up her phone. And then, she stopped. 

"Amy, what's wrong?" The Doctor asked. 

"Rin?" 

Rin turned into stone. He had noted every single one of his displacement during the day but had forgotten about one thing. 

"Rin what are you doing here?" 

He forgot about the time his best friend came to check on him in the beginning of the afternoon. 

"Hello Sousuke," he said, avoiding his eyes, "What are you doing here?" 

"Jogging but...that's not the question. You were- I saw you – you were at home just a moment ago and he had different clothes what happened?" 

"I-" 

"Since you wouldn't tell me what was happening Makoto told me you said Haru you had intestinal problems-" 

"He told you that?!" Rin was outraged.  

"That's not the question!" 

Indeed it was not, but there was no way he could explain how he could be at two places at the same time, with different clothes; and he would certainly not tell him why. 

Behind him he heard someone moving, and he feared what he was about to hear before it even happened. 

"Hello, I'm the Doctor."  

And he extended his hand to salute Sousuke like it was the most natural thing to do in such a circumstance.  

Sousuke took it and shook his hand suspiciously, until he stopped, until his eyes felt on a giant blue English police box in the middle of the park. 

"...Rin, what is this?" 

Amy knocked him off before Rin could reply. 

 

 

Sousuke woke up in the TARDIS, and within the few minutes there was nothing in this world he regretted more than taking that route for his midday jogging. 

Rin told him everything about the Doctor, the TARDIS, the time travelling watch...and about Haru's death. The news was a hard one to swallow because Sousuke swore he had seen him safe and sound just a couple of days before, but a car accident only needed a few seconds to be deadly. The only thing that made him believe, in the end, in this crazy story was Rin's eyes, and the sorrow that lied inside. Rin had witnessed Haru's death multiple times and was desperate to save him, there was nothing to argue, not when he saw it with his own eyes, how Rin was affected. 

He didn't trust any of the other people here but Sousuke would help his best friend through hell if he had to. "Okay," he said. 

"...Okay?" Rin repeated. 

"Fantastic!" 

"You can't just say 'okay' to something so big!" 

"What did I just do?" Sousuke provoked Rin. The discussion ended there. There was nothing to argue. 

 

The plan was simple, too much, maybe; Sousuke stuck with Rin while the Doctor and Amy came back to Iwatobi High School. As soon as they saw their alter ego disguised in caretaker leaving the place, the hid in the first corridor they found. "I had forgotten about that,' the Doctor admited. 

"Me too," Amy was breathless, "Look, someone's coming." 

They could see a shadow on the wall in front of their eyes. There were actually two of them, and soon Amy heard the voice of Haru and his best friend – Big Mama, whatever his real name was, suited him better. 

"Why can't you talk about it now?" The tall guy asked. 

"I just don't feel like doing it here," Haru replied, he looked around them and then, on his arms. "But there's something important I need to tell you." 

"Is it about Rin?" 

Amy tried to see, in vain, if Haru was blushing without betraying their positions, but the Doctor hugged her in his embrace too tightly for her to move as she wanted to. She heard Makoto laughed fondly, so she imagined it instead. "You're still meeting him at the ice cream shop you like so much?" 

"Not today," Haru answered, "But we will, definitely. I want to bring him here no matter what. It's really important to me. How about we go there after school so we can talk?" 

"That's enough," The Doctor whispered, and so they left the place. 

 

Rin scanned the area around the park, the Ocean and the ice cream shop but nothing out of the ordinary struck him. Once or twice, he would heard Sousuke call his name, asking him to see something and then, when he joined him Sousuke would deny he called him in first place. That was definitely odd, but there was nothing he could do about it. He too had had the impression that he was forgetting something important while investigating but he couldn't put his finger on it. 

4.30 PM came very quickly and so their meeting with Amy and the Doctor. 

"Have I met her before?" Sousuke asked about the woman. 

"I don't think so, she's Scottish, and comes from the future." Rin told him. 

"It's weird, I swore I saw her somewhere before..." 

"Anything new?" Amy said. 

They shared their findings, which were very poor unfortunately. Haru wanted to talk to Makoto about Rin and they decided to use the same place to meet, this was as simple as that. 

As they anxiously wanted for 5.02 PM to come, Rin shared some of his questioning with the Doctor. 

"I feel like I'm forgetting something." 

The Doctor was looking at the ice cream shop, pensive, "Me too." 

"Sousuke was calling me earlier and when I came to him he had forgotten he ever called me out. Haru did the same thing before dying you know?" 

"He did?" Interesting, the Doctor thought, because Amy did it a couple of times too. 

"Yeah. He looked scared for a couple of second no more and then it was as if nothing had happened." 

"That's definitely something!" The Doctor stood up and started to pace back and forth again. "This is what we've been missing, this is the last piece of the puzzle! This is the mystery...or part of it...since we don't know what it is." 

The Doctor had a small theory about the crack but it was too soon to talk about it to anyone, not before he could test it. something was causing memory loss near the place Haru would be hit by the car, that's the farthest they'd come with their investigation. 

"They are coming." Sousuke warned them, hidden in the bushes. 

Haru and Makoto were in their field of vision, walking toward the park and the ice cream shop. 

Rin gulped, he wasn't specially ready for this. Time was running to fast. What if indeed, the plan was not enough? What if he couldn't save Haru this time either? 

"They are getting in," Sousuke told him, "Rin, it's your turn." 

Rin sent a last look behind him, he locked eyes with Amy, who nodded, giving him her approbation and also some of her courage, the Doctor only smiled sadly. 

"You're the only one who can save him," Sousuke said when Rin passed him. 

"Is that supposed to ease the pressure out of my shoulder cause it's definitely not helping Sousuke." 

"I know you know that, more than anymore," he went on, "But you need to be brave. Save him." 

Sousuke knew too well that Rin would never be the same without Nanase by his side. 

 

 

"Rin!" Haru gasped, "Rin what are you doing here?" 

5.00 PM, the battle against fate started. 

There were so many things he wanted to say - "don't die, please don't die" - but once again his eyes were glued to the cherry flavour ice cream Haru was holding. "Why did you take cherry again?" His tongue slipped, but Haru didn't seem to notice – he was blushing again but that was ridiculous why would anyone feel embarrassed when eating an ice cream! 

"It's the color of your hair." 

"What?" 

"The first time I went here I saw the colour and immediately thought of your hair," Haru rapped out, "And then I realized even the most meaningless things made me think of you, and then they weren't meaningless anymore. That day, when I came here I-" Haru stopped looking at his feet and meet Rin's eyes instead, "I realized that I liked you, just by looking at that ice cream, that I have liked you for some time now." 

5.01 PM, Rin wasn't counting. 

"That's why you wanted so much to go here..." He murmured. 

Haru nodded, and smiled, "I am so happy I was finally able to tell you." 

Rin missed the beauty of the moment, the beauty of Haru's rare smile; and seconds passed by cruelly. A smile was soon replaced by a look of horror, and Haru took out a pen from his jean and pull over the sleeve of his long shirt. There were dark strokes everywhere. 

"Haru, Haru what's this?" 

"It's _him_!" Haru whispered in fear. 

And so, as Rin turned around, Rin finally met _him,_ or rather, _it._  

It was tall and grey, wearing a black tuxedo, its face was deformed and very much like the aliens' faces in South Park. It was breathing loudly and his hands only had 3 fingers. It was the alien they were looking for the whole time, it was the reason Haru kept dying, Rin was so sure of that! How did they miss it for so long? 

"You..." It talked, and Rin nearly jumped with dread, "You...turn to your friend and tell him to give you his pen." 

"Hey, Haru what is this? What is it talking about?" 

Rin turned around to face Haru who was drawing a strike next to four others on his arm still holding his ice cream as well as he could without making it fall on the ground, his eyes never leaving the alien's silhouette. 

"Haru!" Rin called him. 

"What?" Haru stared at Rin. 

"...Nothing. Nothing really."  

 

And then, Rin remembered. 

 

"Can I borrow your pen?" 

Haru nodded and did as Rin asked, and while Rin was wondering why on Earth he wanted to have that pen in the first place – maybe to write 'I love you Haru' on the back of his hands? - Haru was walking out of his sight to cross the road. 

It was 5.02 PM. 

Fate had won. 

Haru lied on the ground surrounded by his own blood and the rest of his cherry flavour ice cream. 

 

 

Rin didn't follow Makoto to the hospital right away. Not this time. 

There was something on his mind. There was no shock, no tears, and the Doctor saw it in his eyes. He saw in Rin something he had seen so many time in his own eyes, the pain of knowing you're the cause of your loved one's misfortune. 

How many time did he have to let go of his companions? He thought of Donna...what a fantastic woman she was, and she didn't even know, she would never know because of him. He sincerely hoped fate would be fairest for Amy but even now, deep in his heart he knew; those travelling with him never had happy endings. 

"Rin, come with us," the Doctor took him by the arm, "Let's go back into the TARDIS." 

Sousuke was hiding the tears away by blinking quickly and Amy wiped her own with the end of her shirt. How many times had Haru died in front of their eyes? Too many...and he failed again to save him. 

The Doctor was still grasping on Rin's arm tightly, so much it aroused the teen's attention and Rin easily discovered why. The Doctor had seen right through him. As soon as they passed the blue gate the Doctor ran to the packet with the watch inside.

"Don't ever think about it." He warned Rin. 

"But that's the only way!" Rin shouted. 

"What's going on?" 

Amy and Sousuke watched, bemused, as Rin jumped on the Doctor to steal the packet but failed, as the Doctor lifted it above his head. "I won't let you it's madness!" He ran away with his price outside of the TARDIS. 

"Doing nothing would be madness!" Rin followed him, and Amy and Sousuke came after them. "At least there's something I can still do to save him!" 

"But you're not even sure you can!" The Doctor replied vehemently. "Maybe your friend's death is a fixed point in time! There is nothing you or even I can do about it without breaking the laws of Time and damaging the whole Universe!" 

"He's not just a friend," Rin corrected, " It's not, he's everything. Haru _is_ everything. Give that watch, it belongs to me!" 

Rin ran and violently pinned the Doctor to the ground. Amy rushed to them but it was too late; with the impact the packet had fallen out of the Doctor's grip, and lied opened on the TARDIS's floor. The Doctor touched it first, but somehow his eyes stopped on the message at the back, written with a blue that looked like the same as the TARDIS's door. He read the words, and his mind stopped thinking for a moment, and this moment was all Rin needed to take back what he owned. 

"Yes!" He yelled, but there was no happiness in his voice. His cheeks were already full of his tears. 

"Rin, what are you doing? Tell me!" Sousuke pleaded him. 

"I'm saving Haru," Rin started, "I'm saving Haru from myself." 

"What?" Amy exclaimed. 

The Doctor stoop, his eyes finally tore out of the blue message, "Rin, put the watch down, this is not the only solution!" 

But Rin was already turning the spanner adjuster and he went on and on, never seemed to stop. Amy wondered how  he intended to go back into time, days? Week? Months? 

"What are you talking about," Sousuke stepped closer but very carefully, because he feared Rin might engage the mechanism and then, his words would not touch him any longer. "You're not the one in that car right?" 

"If Haru decided to go to that place it's only because of me," Rin sobbed, "It's because of how noisy and insistent I was with him, because of what I showed him, because of what we had lived together. I changed him, I changed who he was when he was born and look where it guided him!" 

Suddenly Sousuke grew very concerned, "Rin, what are you implying?" 

"He told me about that stupid ice cream that looked like my hair, he told me about the sights I showed him and that it was his turn now. Can you imagine how foolish I've felt?" Rin asked them all, and he stopped turning the spanner adjuster at that moment. "If Haru stubbornly came back here evety times despite all our best effort was because of his feelings for me." 

Sousuke didn't know what to say. 

"But they are good things! Feelings are what makes us what we are, you were someone he cherished more than anyone else, Rin," Amy stepped closer too, "Rin, think about it before making a big mistake. There are still some options we can look at. We can watch for the car driver-" 

"We can't use the TARDIS again because there would be too much of us at the same place and time, and I only have one chance left," Rin looked at the watch in his hand, "I can make such a big bet on something so random. The only way to save him is for me to disappear from his life." 

"Because you think your bet is better than ours?" The Doctor asked him bitterly. 

Rin gazed at his eyes, and the Doctor knew instantaneously that there was no going back. He knew those eyes, they meant something painful but necessary ought to be done. 

"You know it's the only way." Rin whined. 

"Rin, I know it's hard to hear but since Haru's death had been the same in the four times we've witnessed, there is a possibility that there is no way to change it. If it's a fixed point in time you can't save him without making the continuum of Time and Space collapses. The whole planet would be destroyed, you and Haru with it." 

"I don't care," was Rin's only reply. 

"Rin! Are you serious?!" The Doctor groaned, "Does your love matters more than every living thing in the Universe?" 

Rin bit back his tears, he took a deep breath, he faced the Doctor and dared him,

"Yes," he breathed, so simply, so evidently, that it left them at loss of what to say back. 

"Amy what aren't you doing anything?" The Doctor asked her, "You're human! You can bring him back to reason!" 

But Amy was crying, and she shook her head. In his place, she would have done the same thing, that's how the Doctor chose to interpret her silence. 

The Doctor then turned to Sousuke, "I'm sorry," he said, "I've never been able to change his mind." 

There was nothing they could do. Rin's hand were trembling, but his determination would not quiver, he would do everything to save Haru, he would endure everything to save Haru. 

The Doctor took his wrist, they eyes met. "I won't let you sacrifice yourself," he threatened him, "If you go back into time before you were ever born you will create a paradox and your whole life will have never existed." He thought of the crack in the wall, was it the result of a paradox in Time? Would Rin really be the cause of all that? Of Amy's destroyed childhood? 

"Oh, I don't intend to go that far," Rin told him, and the Doctor looked surprised, "How would I be able to check if my plan worked if I'm dead?" 

"He's got a good point," Amy said between two sniffs. 

"You know I realized it as soon as he asked me out. Today, the 19th of March, it's the day we've won our first relay together." 

Behind him the Doctor heard Sousuke cried, and understood it was an important moment for them both. 

"From the moment I met him Haru had so much impact on me, and I never thought it would be the same for him. The thought, a couple of days ago, would have brought me so much joy and gratefulness but today I see it as a burden. His love for me killed him. Doctor, do you remember the first day you met Amy?" Rin asked him. 

The Doctor nodded. 

"Good. Keep that precious memories deep inside you, cherish it. You know it sounds funny, because we barely made eye contact that day but I still clearly remember the first day I met Haru." 

"Rin, don't do that-" Sousuke implored. 

"Don't cry, don't cry Sousuke, you'll see me again. We'll be at the same school, everything would be exactly the same except for a few little details." 

"You know it's not true!" Sousuke sobbed, " You know you'll never be happy again if you don't have Haru in your life!" 

"I'll never be happy again if he dies!" Rin replied. "There is no other way. What is it they say? When you love someone you let him go? That's so stupid, so fucking stupid." 

His sobbing had calmed down, it seemed Rin was at peace with himself, at last. 

"You two, thank you very much," he said, his thumb ran on the top of the watch, the Doctor tried to take it away from him but Rin was stronger than him, "I was glad I met you." 

"Good luck this time," Amy wished, "I hope it will be the good one." 

"Don't do this, you are wasting your life for something that cannot be fixed, at least let me check if it's not a fixed point-" 

"Doctor, Amy, Sousuke...Goodbye." 

Rin pushed the button on the top of the watch and everything became white.

"Amy run!" 

 They could barely made it to the TARDIS before being whipped out by Time itself. 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Four Knocks playing in the distance*
> 
> I don't know if I'll do one or two more chapters.
> 
> Since I'm very late everything is kinda rushed and I'm not that happy with how it ended but I'm sure I'll be glad to rewrite in when I'll have more time.
> 
> See ya tomorrow!
> 
> (For those who are wondering Sousuke is probably lost in time...haha no no kidding)


	6. VI

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I realize it's actually nearly impossible to read if you're not used to watch Doctor Who but sorry I really needed to write it.  
> The story is almost over.  
> Long story short, some information for the non whovians 
> 
> The Silence : aliens that had been living on Earth for a very long time. You forget about them as soon as you don't see them. They can be very...persuasive. Their goal is to kill the doctor, ofc.
> 
> River Song : River is Amy's daughter, and also, the Doctor's wife. She's like a female indiana jones and a time traveler like the Doctor. She's half human half time lord because she was conceive in the Tardis...
> 
> There is mention of the episode "The Angels take manhattan" where Amy dies with her husband, leaving the Doctor alone. The second part of the chapter takes place after this desatrous event from the Doctor's timeline. (I cried a lot watching it over).
> 
> This is the penultimate part. I can't believe I made it that long.

**VI**

 

 

The shockwave of Rin's rewind had pushed the Doctor and Amy against the TARDIS's wall. Knock out, Amy lied near the stairs while the Doctor went to the the control and teleported them a couple of minutes back into time. He waited for Amy to wake up, and during that time he studied the little detail that had intrigued his mind so much he had let the watch slipped out of his fingers. 

_"What is fixed cannot be unfixed without damage - x_ _x"_ He said aloud. 

It was troubling how these words seemed to be for him to read. Plus he knew that handwriting, those 'xx' meaning kisses. The image of a woman popped into his head but why? 

What is fixed...did this imply what he had been dreading, that Haru's death was a fixed point in time – but why? It was just a ordinary boy! Why would time be so cruel to him, it made no sense at all. 

He checked the event with the TARDIS, and strangely it wasn't able to confirm if this theory was true of false – the TARDIS changed his mind every second, and the Doctor abandoned the idea as well. After all there was a more simple way to find out. 

He heard Amy groaning, but she was not ready to stand yet. "What happened?" She asked. 

"Rin went back into his timeline to the day he met Haru for the first time," the Doctor explained. "He thinks he can change Haru's fate by not being part of his life." 

"You sound angry." 

He didn't reply, instead he went outside, to see what awaited him. It was 4.59 PM. He closed the door before Amy could come out. He needed to be alone for this. 

He walked down the park to the ice cream shop. He stopped on the bench, the one as blue as the TARDIS and observed. After 5.02 PM he stood up, and met the gaze of a man in the crowd – red eyes, red hair, but it was not the same Rin, he would never be the same again. 

When he entered the TARDIS Amy expected him to tell her everything he had seen but the Doctor remained silent. Her mouth dropped, terrified when she understood what it meant. 

"Doctor...Doctor, tell me." 

He activated the TARDIS's control, and they started to travel through time and space. 

"Doctor!" Amy shouted. 

"It seems I was wrong," he told her quietly. "Haru's death was not a fixed point in time." 

He gave her his best smile, and was welcomed with a hug. "Thank you!" She said, thank you, thank you so much - he hugged her back - thank you he thought, it was what he had read in Rin's eyes just a minute ago, despite everything, it made him angry, the Doctor was angry, angry at himself. 

"So where are we going now?" Amy said as she whipped her tears away. 

"I promise you a beach, didn't I?"  

"Yes! Beach! And then that museum you told me about." 

"Everything you want Pond!" 

And the sound of the TARDIS echoed in a galaxy far, far away... 

 

 

Rin woke up in his childhood bedroom but in his old bed. He had waken as a boy now, and he left out a sigh of content. The plan had worked. He was back before he met Haru. 

It was this time of the year when it was no snowing yet. Sousuke and Gou were always with him, they were careless, they were happy. He missed technology a bit, but long phone calls had their charms, he admitted willingly. 

Gou was still crying the loss of their father, and his mother often cried with them. "It's okay sweetie, we'll make it anyway. Mom is here," she whispered in his ears when she took him back to bed. It was difficult to act like a child again when he had been a man in love just a few second before. 

He kept swimming, and then the fateful day arrived. He won, strangely. Maybe because he had more experience, because he could feel the water better now, but both Rin and Haru fates changed with that win. 

Rin did his best to avoid looking at Haru, but he could feel his eyes on him. The role had switched. Haru was the one looking up to him. 

 

Rin did not change school but they regularly met during competitions. 

He decided against going to Australia as well. Because the stronger he got the more Haru stared at him. 

"Matsuoka," Haru called him one day. They were thirteen, Rin had won again but this time it was within a hair's breadth. On his numerous night walk nearby Haru's house he had caught him training, running, making push ups in his garden. He was training to beat him. 

"Hn?" 

Rin faked indifference but his heart ached more when he saw how hurt Haru ended up, each time he refused to engage any kind of conversation about swimming. Haru wanted to befriend him. Rin had to put two and two together and acknowledge that his presence only could lead Haru to a certain death. He should have gone to Australia. 

It wasn't too late after all. He wondered how Russel and Lori were doing without him. 

 

He kept in touch with Sousuke and sent him letter very regularly this time. Sousuke was studying in Samezuka again, and he had met Haru and Makoto more than once. Nagisa was part of the swimming club as well but it seemed they weren't that close, and he never heard of Rei during their conversations. It seemed they were doing fine, without him. Rin was not. 

But it was all to save Haru so it was okay. If his life was half the one it use to be to have Haru's back then it was okay, everything was okay. 

 

Except it was not. 

 

Rin came back in March for his mother's birthday. The following day he woke up late this time, and when he came down Gou was eating her cereals and staring at a white packet in front of her. 

"It's for you," she said. 

It was the watch, Rin already knew it. Gou took it before him and read the note at the end. 

"What is fixed cannot be unfixed without damages – xx."Gou frowned, "Why would Grandpa write something like that?" 

Rin wondered if the package had ever been his grandfather doing at all. It wasn't even his handwriting after all, and he'd certainly not write 'xx' at the end of any kind of message. 

"Hello sweetie," their mother dropped kisses on their head, "I'm going out for grosseries do you need anything?" 

The girls had a nice chat while Rin stared, hopelessly, at the back of the watch. There was no number embeded there. And when he fixed time and pushed the button nothing happened. It was just a regular watch. 

"Oh!" His mother's voice caught him off guard, "I can't believe that silly man gave you his watch!" 

Rin saw there the perfect opportunity to learn more about his grand father. 

"It was a gift, actually," she told him as she washed the dishes, the noise of the water running made it difficult to hear everything as clearly as he would have. "It was a gift from his first wife. It never worked, but he was very fond of it and he never threw it away. He kept saying he was waiting for the good time. We always wondered what he meant by that..." 

Unfortunately this mother knew little about her father's first wife and the investigation stopped here. 

 

Rin wanted to be cool about it but he kept checking time every  two minutes after 4 o'clock. He walked to the park with a knock on his stomach, it didn't matter how many time he told himself that everything was going to be fine he still dread the moment as he did years ago. 

Rin felt so old, he looked 17 but his mind had passed his early twenties. He had lived through this tragedy far too much not to witness, one last time, a happy ending. Just this one time...please, just this one time... 

Things went bad when he saw Haru was already there. He was just reading a book in the park, and lifted his eyes as soon as Rin halted. He recognized Rin immediately and rose from his seat. He started running, even, and Rin had to hide. His heart hammered in his chest. How could it be possible? 

He hadn't sacrifice all of his years – all of _their_ years – for nothing! 

Rin saw Haru laying on the road, he saw his body in the hospital, felt his hand, lifeless, in his own, shaking. He panicked, his breathing got erratic and his limbs couldn't move. 

What if it was a fixed ? How could he unfixed the unfixable? The Doctor said he could not, but he had to! 

He needed more time. 

He needed more time... 

But Haru didn't have any to spare. It was not a car this time, and it was not strictly at 5.02 PM. It was a bike that destabilize his steps as he was looking for Rin, and his head hurt a rock violently in its fall. Life disappeared from his eyes at the impact. 

 

All of this had been done in vain. 

 

A crowd had gathered near Haru's body, they were crying and calling for help, but Rin's eyes were ahead, they were looking at the strange and sad man with a bowtie, the spaceman from another world, and he thought he would say 'I told you so' just to mock him but he didn't. The Doctor was crying. 

They shared the longest eye contact, which talked louder than any words they could have find. Then the Doctor turned his heels. That was final goodbye. 

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

 

They had gone through time and space, had saved the Universe more than once and yet, all his best efforts hadn't been enough to save them, his family. 

Amy and Rory Williams. 

It all started with the book. Melody Malone...the story of their death had been written before it already happened. There was no way of changing time. Time sometime, could not be rewritten. 

"Hey, are you okay?" River asked. 

They were back in the TARDIS, she was about to write the book, the story of how her parents died. How could she handle that? River, she was so strong, she was the only person he knew who had bent Time to her own will, refusing to kill him and destroying Time at the same time. She didn't care. She was a psychopath after all! Created by the Silence to kill him...he should thanked them for River, if he ever met them again. Thank them for giving birth to his wife. 

"No," he said, "How could this be?" 

She hold his hand, and sat with him until he stopped crying. The Doctor always tried to keep his emotion deep inside but loosing Amy, and Rory, after all the loss and battles, was too much. Of course there was River...but River was already lost as well. 

In the end he always ended up alone. 

 

It all started with the book. He had taken it out of his vest, he remembered. It had been lying around in the TARDIS library for some time. He opened the first page, "Happy Birthday Toraichi! xx" was written with a pen. It did not belong here, someone must have steal it from its original place. 

But since it was not the Doctor and considering how important the book was to him now, he chose to keep it. He walked to the Library to put it here where it truly belong. 

There was a white packet waiting for him in the library. 

It was opened and had been opened for a long time. "What is fixed cannot be unfixed without damages – xx." Was written at the back. 

Rin's packet. 

"River!" He called her. He turned around, she was already here. 

"Yes sweetie?" 

He remembered every single stories, even better when there were lives he wasn't able to save. Rin's story had been a cock and bull one from the very beginning. He had failled back then but now, things were different. 

"You wrote this." He said more than asked, because it was River's handwriting and there was no way she could say otherwise. 

"I did." She simply said. 

"You did. You...did! You're the one who sent it to Rin!" The Doctor was furious! 

"Took you some time to notice."  

He hated when she spoke like this. River knew him at his best and worst, and he hated that – if only he could always be the best with her. "Why would you do that?" 

"Spoilers sweetie." 

He walked just in front of her, his breath running on her skin. "How dare you say that to me?" 

"Because it is, my love," she replied just as calmly. "I'm your future, there are rules that shall not be violated and you know that better than anyone I know!" 

She had raised her voice and he heard her pain. River wasn't talking because she didn't want to, she simply couldn't. 

River sent the watch to Rin. That was at least a new information that could help. 

"You know he died anyway," the Doctor told him. "He died, his death became a fixed point in time." 

"I know, their idea was to create one." 

"What do you mean 'their idea'?" The Doctor asked. 

It took River by surprise. "Haven't you guessed already? Who was behind all that?" 

They couldn't have known the first time but now, the puzzle's piece got together smoothly. Haru's weird behaviour, the marks on his arms, the things they kept forgetting.. 

"It was the Silence," the Doctor breathed. "From the very beginning. The Silence ordered Haru to cross that road until it happened enough time to become a fixed point." 

"It was their theory." River added. "But for that they needed to be sure of something." 

"They needed a time traveller!" The Doctor realized, "They needed me! They lured me here so that they could create their fixed point but why?" 

"Doctor, why did you come here? Why did you land in Iwami that day?" 

It started with this. Everything. It started with the crack on Amy's wall. But it was all over now, the cracks did not exist anymore, even the Silence should have disappeared. 

The TARDIS had felt the crack, which meant it was going to happen; it was like reading the book of your life, every chapter had to happen once they were read. There was only one way he could see to recreate the crack. 

"River, can you do something for me?" He asked her. 

 

 

"Are you really sure you want to do this?" River demanded before leaving him. 

The Doctor set the TARDIS's control, and looked for Rin's localisation. "It has to be done, hasn't it?" 

River stoop next to him, looking at him concerned. "But you know how terrible the crack can be." 

"Then I'll have to find a way to fix it once it's done. There's nothing I can't do, right?" 

River smiled, and left a kiss on his temple. She took the white packet before the Doctor stopped her. "Wait, give it to me for a second." 

 

 

 

 

The story then brings us to in Tokyo, the 21st century , in a very small apartment. There was an old man on a chair, reading letters. The place was gloomy and grey, everything from lively. The man wasn't waiting for anyone and so, when he heard four knocks on the door, he first thought it was a dream.  

Often he had dreamed that an old friend of him would come visit him. A friend he never had, with bright blue eyes sparkling like water under the sun, a friend he cherished more than his own life, a friend who was gone before he had time to meet him. His life had been a succession of bad decision since the day Haru died. Rin had become a ghost, he had stopped swimming, had tought math and physics in a big Universite, hoping to find out more about time travelling and about that man. 

About the Doctor. 

Four knocks on his door again, that was definitely not a dream then. Rin opened the door, and his arms fell to his side. It was, indeed, an old friend he had wanted to see for a long time. 

"Hello Rin." 

"Doctor!" Rin exclaimed, he had never felt so alive in years, "You're alone?" 

The statement stabbed the Doctor right through his heart, he tried to hide his pain with a smile. "Amy and Rory are spending time together." He lied. 

"Rory?" 

"Oh, Amy's husband. Oh that's true, you missed the Centurion! I have so much to tell you..." 

 

They talked for hours, about the Doctor's adventures and in the end, Rin had nothing much to say. He had done nothing with his life. He didn't want to. He didn't want to live anymore but there was still a spark in his eyes, the probability that he could fix what couldn't possibly be. 

"Rin, do you know what a paradox is?" The Doctor asked. 

Rin shook his head. The Doctor gazed at the ceiling, remembering what Amy and Rory had done to save their couple. He told Rin about Amy's courage and how it worked. As for the rest of the story, he didn't need to know about the weeping angels. 

"So you mean that by dying before Rory was supposed to, they created a paradox, so that Time decided they had never been in Manhattan in the first place." 

"Exactly; Rory couldn't be old and dying and, at the same time dying in his youth, it was impossible so Time erased it." 

"That's...incredible. What a great story." Rin was crying tears of joy, there was still part of the young Rin in him, full of dreams and so romantic. "I wish I could have done the same for Haru." 

"It's true that if Haru was to die before that fateful day of 19th of March at two past five, the fixed point would be destroyed and Time might erases it just as he erased Rory's death. It's really a shame that you don't have one more time to try." 

"The solution might have been a bit extreme," Rin grimaced, his back hurt with the years of being alone. "I don't know if my young self would have been able to kill Haru in order to save him. That would have been too much for me at that time." 

"And now?" The Doctor asked, "If you were given the choice, would you kill him to save his life?" 

"The question is would he let me?" Rin smiled bitterly. "But that's in the past now. I have no chance left. I am old and tired. My life had been nothing but a failure, at least I want to spent the few days I have left at peace with myself. I was glad you passed by." 

Rin walked him to the door. 

"Do you still have the packet? The white one where your grandfather's watch was?" The Doctor asked. 

"Oh, yes, I've kept this horrible box to remind me of my failure the whole time, can you imagine?" Rin said bitterly. "I really don't know what keeps me from throwing it away now." 

"You should maybe take a look at it." The Doctor proposed. 

"Why? I know this damn watch like the back of my hand. I've studied it all my life." 

"Then maybe you should take another look." 

Rin rolled his eyes, "This will get us nowhere. It's been so long since the incident that it doesn't hurt anymore but-" 

The first thing he thought when he looked at the bottom of the package was how it didn't look like it was supposed to look. To be honest Rin had never read the notes, Gou did and gave him the watch but he never thought it would have any interest after Haru died again despite his sacrifice. The text had changed. 

_'What is fixed can't be unfixed without damages – xx'_ was still there but, just under the first line there was those words. 

_'One more Time._ _Yowza_ _!'_  

At the back of the watch Rin's skin could feel something craved, and his finger ran across the rib forming the number '1'. 

One more time. 

Rin couldn't see anything now that his tears had blurred his vision. "How...how did you-" 

The Doctor was already at the door, the TARDIS could be seen, its door open and waiting for him. "Let's say I had help from a very good friend." He replied. "I'll see you later, something like the 19th of March in the afternoon sounds nice, don't you think?" 

Rin nodded as tears ran on his face. The Doctor disappeared, and Rin closed his eyes. 

Everything became white.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TBH if it was to be done again I wouldn't do it the same way. Like writing 1k a day + working and socializing is too much. I'm sad I couldn't finish it for the rh week tho T.T
> 
> Last chapter tomorrow. I'll try to add some videos and some insolite fact and a list of hidden dw references!


	7. VII

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is the end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's a long author note at the end so the chapter is actually 3k. You don't have to read it through.

**VII**

**.**

 

Rin woke up in his childhood bed the day of Haru's death, he didn't check the time but it was sunny outside. Gou was eating her cereals downstairs - "It's for you" she said, and Rin didn't check the packet – his mother was washing the dishes and he kissed her temple before disappearing from his sight. 

He knew Haru was still going to Iwatobi High school thanks to Sousuke. He ran. 

"Haru?" 

He looked for Haru everywhere, in every corridor. In the end he spotted Makoto and rushed to him. 

"Where's Haru?!" He almost assaulted the poor boy. 

"Matsuoka-kun, what are you doing here?" 

There was no room for explanation, not when it would be so long and complicated. Someone took Makoto's arm to halt him – it was Haru's hand, Rin would recognize it in the dark. His heart stopped the moment he met his blue eyes. It had been so long, it had been decades since he hadn't seen them. Rin fought the urge to pull Haru into a hug but remembered on time they were not friend in this life. His life. He chose the separation, he was the only one to blame. 

Haru pulled up his annoyed face, "What do you want?" He bit, but Rin saw his eyes sparkling with excitement. 

"Let's go for a race," Rin grinned. 

"Okay." 

"What? Haru you can't lunch time is almost over!" 

"After then," Haru said, following Makoto to their classroom. "We'll be racing this afternoon." 

Rin nodded, sealing the agreement. He wanted in front of the school's entrance to be sure he wouldn't miss him. Haru walked straight to him when he got out, his steps were fast and forward. 

"Let's go," he said, Rin happily obliged. 

It wasn't the first time they raced, but the first since Rin had left for Australia. Rin swamn as seriously as he could and he felt Haru doing the same. The water was burning against his arms and legs, and the warmth he had missed so much inside him surfaced at last, colouring the sights of his eyes. 

Haru didn't ask for anything before they got into water. When the match was over – Rin lost, he hadn't swum in ages – they sat on the edge of the pool, he chose to break the silence only then. 

"Where were you?" 

"In Australia. I've been practicing a lot." 

Haru stared at his legs, "Didn't seem like it. I was never able to beat you." 

Rin chuckled. "Things change." 

"You don't." 

"Hn?" 

Haru was blushing, and lowered his face. "You and the water, the feeling of your swimming...it hadn't changed." 

The need of hugging Haru spread through Rin's bones and flesh but he didn't have the right to. He couldn't control his tears though and pretended they were pearls of sweat, or of the swimming pool – who cared. 

"You didn't answer my question yet." Haru spoke. 

Rin rose his head. He stared at Haru, and Haru was looking at the water. "Where have you been?" 

"In Australia, in Sydned more precisely," Rin replied. "I told you already." 

"You were out of my life and it should have never been that way," Haru said vehemently, to Rin's greatest surprise. "Where were you when I needed you?" 

Rin was at loss of words. How could this be happening? Did Haru remember things from a life he had himself erased? 

"I...I..." 

"After I swam with you everything became different," Haru went on, calmer this time, "I felt a rush of something within me a burst of fire in my stomach and by the time I realized what it was you were gone. And you wouldn't even talk to me or race with me again. Do you have any idea of how frustrated it had been, all this year, to be just a few inches from you and not being able to reach you?" 

Rin couldn't tell he had gone through the same hell. His voice was crumbling into cries and moaning. All those years they had been suffering from his stupid action...and the rest of his life hadn't felt like one after Haru died. What Haru was saying was crystal clear. From the very beginning, they were born to be together, to swim together, and he had been a fool to think he could bend that rule. 

"You will never know how sorry I am for this. Know that it was not your fault, only mine. There's a story I need to tell you, if you are willing to listen." Rin asked him but he knew Haru would say yes, he knew it deep in his heart. Haru had better because if he did not Rin would have to force him to die, which could be a little bit more complicated. 

Haru nodded. 

"Okay, come then. We're going to the cliff." 

 

 

Once Rin had thought something very silly, but in the light of the reason event, he wondered truly if he hadn't been gifted with some sort of fortune reader abilities. It had something to do with how loving Haru felt like walking up to the edge of a cliff. Here they were. The sound of waves crashing at their feet and the wind owling in their ears forced Rin to shout to Haru. 

"One day I woke up with a strange gift from my grand father. It was a watch that could go back in time. That day, we had a date, and I messed up. You died that day," Haru's eyes widened when he heard that, "And I used the watch to go back into time to save you. I even had help from a professional time traveller but each time we lived the same day again, we were unable to save you. Haru, this day, it's today. You were going to go to the park today, weren't you?" 

Haru didn't reply right away. He was looking at Rin's eyes very intensely. "How did you know?" He shouted. 

"Because I was there. You were reading and you saw me. And then you fell on your head and you never opened your eyes again." 

"You said we were going on a date the first time I died," Rin hold his breath, indeed he had, indeed they were, but this Haru had barely talked to him. "Were we dating?" 

Rin couldn't lie to him, not when he was about to ask him something so crazy. "We were, kind of. It was our first date. You took me to the ice cream shop and took a cherry flavour cone because-" 

"It reminded me of your hair." 

Rin caught Haru's hands and grasped them tightly. "You remembered?" He was on the verve of crying. 

"No. I just know things about you. I know I want to know you better. I feel like I've been knowing you for ages." 

Haru was holding Rin's hands very tightly as well. 

"Rin, you just told me I'm about to die today. Is it why you decided to talk to me?" 

"Can I hug you?" 

Rin pleaded him with his eyes, hoping Haru wouldn't dare to turn him down; he didn't and Haru opened his arms. 

"I took a hell of a detour to come back to you but now, I am here, and I'm not going anywhere," Rin sobbed next to Haru's ear. "Haru, your death is fixed, it cannot be avoid." 

"What did you say?" Haru asked, panicked. 

"I mean, there is one way, and it's a little bit extreme but it's our only shot. Do you trust me?" 

"Yes," Haru replied, "I do trust you, strangely." 

"If you die before your time comes then it would be a paradox," Rin explained, "Because it will mean you would die twice in a day and it's not possible, and Time would erase the impossible. You got it?" 

"That's why you brought me here to the cliff? You want me to jump." 

Rin took a deep breath. That was it, that was the moment he dreaded.  

"Basically, yes." 

The waves and the wind distracted him for a moment. He didn't want to know what Haru's answer would be. Talking about it would make the moment come quicker, and he had seen Haru died enough for a lifetime. He had already decided that he would jump with him anyway – if you jump I jump he thought and immediately took this memory far away from his mind considering how bad this love story had ended. 

"Will you jump with me?" 

Loving Haru felt like walking up to the edge of a cliff, and accepting his love in return felt like throwing himself into the void, never knowing when the fall would ended. Yet, he didn't have to be alone. Haru, holding his hands, would fall with him. 

"Yes," Rin replied. "I will. I told you I'm not going anywhere." 

There were tears in the corner of Haru's eyes. Rin wondered for a second why this idiot chose to follow him, why he didn't question his crazy theory about his death. When everything would be over maybe, if they remember anything, he would ask him, because that was just another mystery to add to his collection of unresolved interrogations, but this one he welcomed it with his whole heart. 

"Okay, so how do we do. Like do we jump at 3 or something?" Rin asked nervously. 

"You're the one counting." 

"Why would I be you're the one who's supposed to die!" 

Rin approached his foot from the void. It was damn high. He could barely see the rocks waiting for them if they jumped. 

When they would jump, he corrected himself. 

"Haru we have very little time." It was past five o'clock, Haru only had a minute or two to live. "Let's do this together. One..." 

"Two..." 

The shouted three together, and they jumped, their fingers entwined. Rin felt, before everything went dark, Haru's arms circling around his waist. He put his head on Rin's shoulder and closed his eyes as if he was merely taking a short rest before the next race. Their embrace felt like home. 

 

 

 

He hadn't counted how many time he had waking up that day. In his ears the singing of birds and people chatting past him made him opened his eyes. Rin wasn't in his bed anymore, but lying in the grass. He sat up. It was the park near the Ocean, and he was alone. 

"Rin." 

It was Haru. 

 

They were sitting on the bench just in front of the ice cream shop. The three of them where eating ice cream – Haru, Rin, and of course, the Doctor. 

"Vanilla is a good flavour," he said when he finished his cone. Haru had chosen cherry and Rin dark chocolate, just like Amy had the first time they came here. Haru was still eating but Rin didn't feel hungry at all. 

"Doctor, what happened?" Rin asked him. 

"Well, you know what happened," The doctor said. "You created a paradox and Time brought you back where it all started." 

"How does it work?" Haru asked. 

"First we have to come back to the beginning! The beginning of everything, Haru, your death. A group of aliens called 'the Silence' decided that you would die at a certain time on a certain day, and chose the circumstances very precisely because of their force of persuasion. Feeling Rin's pain when you died, his grandparents sent an item, a watch, which could go back into time. Rin did exactly what he was supposed to do, he went back into time to find a way to save you. But each time the Silence got the best of you both. And each time you died, at the same hour, in the same circumstances, your death left a print into Time, and the more you died the more it was difficult to erase from your life. The Silence wanted to create a fixed point in time from beginning to end." 

"But why would they do that? And why me?" Haru inquired. 

"I don't have all the answers, "the Doctor started, his eyes set on Rin, "But the most plausible theory is that they expected me to come to Rin's rescue and to use the TARDIS to help him save you. The signal Rin spread into space by going back into time is not something I could have missed or ignored. They knew I would come." 

"It still doesn't tell us why they did all this..." Rin whispered. 

He rested his head in the crook of Haru's neck and finally fell asleep. His heart was still feeling old, he would need a lot of rest to recover from this hectic adventure. 

After Rin felt silent the Doctor realized him and Haru had something in common. They liked to remain silent when no words were needed. The boy was caressing Rin's hair, studying his face, discovering his secrets and lines. 

"You don't remember anything, don't you?" 

Haru shook his head. "I have nightmare sometimes. Those aliens, the Silence. I think I dream about them some times. As for Rin, I've always felt attracted to him in some way. Not being able to talk to him freely felt unnatural. How was it?" 

"How was what?" 

"My life before Rin went back into time and broke off all tides with me to protect me." Haru clarified "What were we?" 

"I'm not the right person to ask," The Doctor stood up, his time here was now over. "I'm sure Rin had everything locked in his memory, and that if you really want to know he'll tell you, eventually. But, Haruka, you shouldn't live in the past; create new memories and treasure them, don't try to reproduce something that never happened. If I were you I wouldn't worry too much about it...Rin will love you just as much as he loved the Haru he sacrificed his future for." 

Haru gazed at Rin with such tenderness that it made the Doctor looked away, feeling like an imposter, a peeping tom; he walked to the TARDIS very quietly. 

"Don't you dare leaving me without a goodbye Doctor." 

Rin raised his head from Haru's shoulder. He looked in peace, at last, secure in Haru's embrace. They really looked like they were meant to be together. 

"Then, goodbye Rin." 

"See you around." Rin told him. 

"Are you travelling alone?" Haru asked him. 

The Doctor turned around, almost waiting for Amy to jump out of the TARDIS, followed by Rory. Amy would smile and she would come along; but the TARDIS's door remain empty. He truly was alone now. 

"Come by anytime." Rin said. "I'll be glad to travel with you from time to time." 

"As you wish captain." 

Rin smiled against Haru's shoulder. He seemed to have fallen asleep again. It was better this way; the Doctor hated endings. 

"Goodbye, and thank you." Haru said.  

It was their last word to him. 

Before leaving the Doctor watched the wall of the ice cream shop. The crack was small but it was indeed there. The paradox created by Haru's early death wasn't hard enough to compromise Time but it did make some damages. It would take years for a crack like this to evolve like the one of Amy's wall, and so the Doctor wasn't that worried for the small town of Iwami. 

The Doctor disappeared inside the TARDIS and they never saw him again. Because their lives were safe now. 

 

 

 

 

 

There was something waiting for him on the TARDIS controls. 

"'Melody Malone and the Japanese conundrum', you couldn't find anything better than that." 

The Doctor went directly to the chapter list. The Epilogie caught his eyes. 

'About the watch'. It read. 

And so, the Doctor read. 

 

 

_'Hello Sweetie,_

 

_I guess that our two lovebirds are safe and sound now, and so it's finally time for me to reveal the mystery of the old pocket watch. What an amazing artefact! I found it in the ruin of Aztaport in my early days. Since I already had in my possession other safer ways of time travelling I only kept it as a pack up plan in case something went wrong. I used some of my time lord energy to charge it to my personal likings. That's it for the watch._

_As for Rin's grandfather..._

_I am sure you read Amy's farewell by now._

_You knew they lived happy in Manhattan. They even adopted children. One of them was Japanese, it was just after world war two. I found that boy, my brother. I stayed with him after his first wife died. I gave him the watch and told him to give it to Rin when the time comes._

_Just know that I wasn't manipulated by the Silence when I did that._

_First, I wanted Rin to be happy because of how much he reminded me of Amy, of my mother. Sometimes when his eyes are sparkling, he kind of makes me think of you too. For that I needed you to save Haru. Second, and Doctor don't be mad at me for this, but you needed to go to Rin's house. That's where you found it, the book I wrote about my parents' death. Toraichi...Rin's father...that was my gift to him._

_Now, you know about the watch, you know who send it._

_There's just a last question for you to solve._

_Who is Rin Matsuoka?_

_See you around, Doctor . And don't travel alone.  
_

_xx'_

 

 

 

 Everybody knows that everybody dies. And no one knows it like the Doctor. But I do think that all the skies in all the worlds might just turn dark, if he ever accepts it. But some days are special. Some days are so, so blessed. Some days, nobody dies at all. 

Now and then, every once in a very long while, every day in a million days, when the wind stands fair and the doctor comes to call...  

... everybody lives.  

 

**The end**

 

* * *

 

 

 

**Author Note:**

This is a Doctor Who x Free! Crossover I wrote for rh week and I'm late...I honestly never thought it would be that long. Like always. 

Since I wanted to finish really quick and since I kind of had planned everything from the beginning, I wrote a lot everyday, and so the pacing and writing feels rushed to me, and definitely not perfect, or at last not as perfect as it could be. I feel ashamed, a bit, to make you read this, it's not even beta to be fair...I hope you enjoyed it despite all this flaws. 

I had a very hard time to decide what to write for the ending. Rin could go back at the time when he decided to part from Haru's life and they could have jump off of the cliff at that moment...basically they could have done anything because you can do anything with the TARDIS. But, I chose to do it that way and by that I think I followed the general feeling of Doctor Who's episodes. 

(For those who are wondering yes I like Moffat haha). 

Here are some bonus I wanted to share with you all. 

First [Rin's timeline](http://doctor-queenie.tumblr.com/private/148975274477/tumblr_oby2zvdpGI1sr9020) : It's not that complicated! 

The music theme : because it's not a Doctor Who episode without a 'I am the Doctor' theme somewhere. 

-> [When the Doctor comes to call ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kSf8w28Fs4)

-> [When Rin uses the watch for the last time. ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuHynbdEFDA)

-> [When the Doctor meets with old Rin. ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WMrgINqYBI)

-> [When they jump off the cliff.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ)

 

And at last, hidden Doctor who references that were dropped here and there, in chronological order (they are 28 and it's just bonus). 

1-  "Hello sweetie" : that's River' catch phrase. It's also the first words spoken in this fic. Rin's mother was raised by River. 

2- At the beginning the message in the bottom of Rin's packet was supposed to be 'remember the four knocks'. Actually the fic was supposed to be called four knocks because of the song. Then I wrote 'remember, you and me, time and space, you watch us run.' But couldn't link it to anything. So it ended up with this rubbish phrase. I added the 'xx' to stick with River's character. I like the idea that you don't see River until the very end but she was 'there' even before the Doctor. 

3 - _"_ _Gou_ _repeated_ _to catch_ _his_ _attention. "_ _Rin_ _..._ _he_ _didn't_ _make_ _it_ _."_ That was a reference of HIMYM when Lily announced to Marshall that his dad past away. 

4 – Haru was so obsessed to come to the ice cream shop with Rin that it's difficult to know if it's not part of the Silence's plan. Who knows? 

5- [Here is the wiki page about the Silence](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silence_\(Doctor_Who\)). Some of its descriptions : Their existence is a secret because anyone who sees them immediately forgets about them after looking away, but retains suggestions made to them by the Silence. This allows them to have a pervasive influence across human history while being difficult to locate or resist. 

6 – [Here are the marks on Haru's arms ](http://www.tmhspost.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/tumblr_mlos27Aaqt1s8kmhvo1_500.jpg)

7 – There are a lot of parallels between Rin and characters from Doctor Who. When Amy catches him she says "Amy 1 - Doctor 0" just like Rin thought 'Rin 1 - Death 1'. 

8 - "why am I the only one not ginger?" : The Doctor is an alien that, when he dies, changes his body. He has yet to be ginger (when he regenerates he often says 'still not ginger!'). I decided that we could say Rin was ginger even if it's not really...the same colour. 

9 – Just before they met Rin, Amy and the Doctor were fighting Daleks with Churchill during ww2. That's why she took of a picture of him to show Rin. 

10 – I realized I never talked about t[he crack on Amy's wal](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1nUhms7421g/UOIfcKS4xqI/AAAAAAAADbE/l4_q8_nzccI/s640/Crack.png)l. The crack are in fact cracks in Time. When you get to close to them the crack swallow you, and it's like you have never existed at all, it erases you from Time altogether. The cracks originally came from the destruction of the Doctor's TARDIS later in the season. Anyway, that's why the Doctor was curious of going there in the first place. 

11 – More parallels between Rin and Amy : amy wants to high five the doctor. She also likes bitter chocolate. 

12 – When the Doctor says '"It's difficult to watch someone you love leave you,"" he's certainly referring to Rose. 

13 – During the whole fic Amy sounds awefully romantic. She thinks of Rory a lot during that time. For those who don't know yet, Amy was about to marry Rory when the Doctor took her out in the TARDIS to live extraoridnary adventure. Another thing they have in common with Rin. 

14 – For those who are wondering I found the boy's nickname at 2 am and I was exhauted. 

15 '"He's probably just thinking of how to properly do it now that he missed the first time. That's what I would have done, if my opinion counts, for you." ' The Doctor says when they are spying on Rin. It's actually what Rin is doing, thus thinking like the Doctor. By the way, Rin lies a lot in this fic. (Rule n°1 : the Doctor lies.) 

16 – The whole fic happened the 19th of March. First it was supposed to be the 9th, only because of a song from ichi rittoru no namide called 3/9. But the 19th it fits better with the possible date of the first relay they won even if I couldn't find it anywhere. 

17 – The Doctor says "fantastic!" At some point in chapter 5, which is the 9th Doctor catch phrase. 

18 - Sousuke in chapter 5 "But you need to be brave. Save him." : let Rin be brave...(reference to Clara's goodbye at the end of season 9) 

19 – The birth of this fic was actually the scene where Rin figures out it's because of him that Haru comes to the ice cream shop every time, and decided that he would be better without him. He thinks going back into time to the day they met and changing their relationship will save Haru. [His goodbyes are inspired by Amy's,](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IosDD3hcXoo) in the episode 'the angel takes Manhattan'. You can watch it here if you like crying like me. 

This is where the four knocks songs plays as well. 

The scene is also a reference to 'the Wedding of River Song' when the Doctor asked her if by killing him she would suffer more than every living thing in the Universe, and she says Yes. 

Another parallels with the Pond's goodbye scene, Amy approves Rin's action just like River approved hers. 

Rin also says "you'll see me again" to Sousuke which is something River says the the 10th Doctor before she dies.  

20 – At the beginning of chapter 6 the Doctor lies to Amy about Haru not to hurt her. 

21 – When Rin received the watch for the last time Gou reads the message at the bottom. She only reads aloud '"What is fixed cannot be unfixed without damages – xx."' but the rest of the text (Yowza!) is already written.  

22 – The sentences "Time can be rewritten – Not those times, not one line, don't you dare." Are very important to be okay.  

23 – River Song's timeline is the must fuckup thing in the universe so I won't strat explaining but she comes from the Doctor's future. She often says Spoilers when they talk about things happening in his future then. 

24 – The scene at the end of chapter 6 where the Doctor meets old Rin reminds me of the Christmas special episode with Dumbledore (the actor, not the wizard, I just don't remember the name.) 

25 – Oops four knocks again. 

26 – The scene of Amy and Rory creating the paradox to save Rory [can be find here.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDgx2C1ltm4)

27 – Rin says "See you around" as his farewell to the Doctor just like the Doctor said to River for their last meeting in 'the Name of the Doctor'. ("See you around, Professor Song") 

28 - The last question is for you to solve!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my god I can't believe I've made it just one day late.
> 
> I'm honestly kinda happy about it, execpt that it all feels rushed and it's not beta and not edited but I'll definitely do that one day !
> 
> I hope you liked it and that if you didn't know doctor who, it made you want to start watching it. It's an amazing show!
> 
> See you around !

**Author's Note:**

> Everyone's gonna hate me again haha...
> 
> But the story just starts ! Will Rin manage to save Haru ?? So much suspence...and what is the Doctor doing ?!
> 
> See you tomorrow !


End file.
